West Ham have topped football’s arrest charts for the second season in a row, while Arsenal and Tottenham are both included in the top five in new Government statistics released on Thursday.
A total of 89 football-related arrests were made at West Ham matches during the 2022-23 season, a small decrease from 95 the previous year, but still six more than second-placed Manchester United. Manchester City and Leeds ranked third and fourth, respectively, with the north London rivals joint-fifth on 51 arrests each.
Of those West Ham arrests, 27 were for public order offences, while 23 came for throwing missiles — more than twice as many as at any other club. The Hammers insist that their zero-tolerance policy, as well as state-of-the-art CCTV at the London Stadium have them better equipped to root out offenders.
Millwall, meanwhile, have the second-highest number of football banning orders in place at 66, behind only United’s 69, and had more violent disorder arrests (21) than any other club.
Across the country, the number of new football banning orders handed out rose by 32 per cent on the 2021-22 season, but police reported a 10 per cent decrease in incidents at matches classed as high severity. Reported incidents of disorder were also down by six per cent.
Notably, there were no football-related arrests made at women’s matches, while of the 23 arrests made for racist or indecent chanting in the men’s game, none were at London clubs.
There were a total of 2,198 football-related arrests made across the country, up from 2,037 last year, but those figures are not directly comparable, since arrests for Class A drug offences (200) and arrests made in England and Wales relating to the World Cup in Qatar (101) are included in the statistics for the first time.
