The Premier League newcomers Cardiff City and Chelsea FC are top of an official table – but is it one they want to be at the top of?!
Some 2,456 football fans were arrested during 2012-13 season the number arrests in connection with all international and domestic football (‘regulated’) matches involving teams from, or representing, England and Wales. Most arrests were for disorder or ‘alcohol offences’. This represents a slight increase of four per cent, or 93 arrests, on the 2011-12 total – which was the lowest total on record, according to the Home Office. The general downwards trend in football-related arrests is continuing, the authorities add, although police say there remains a risk it will escalate if efforts to prevent and tackle football-related disorder are reduced. Total attendance was more than 39 million at regulated football matches. The total number of arrests represents less than 0.01 per cent of that total, or one arrest for every 14,000 spectators.
In what maybe a tribute to the stewarding of grounds and CCTV coverage, more of the arrests were outside stadia (1329, including 316 by British Transport Police) rather than inside (1127), when you might think fans might be most aggressive.
The season saw an average of less than one arrest made per match inside and outside of stadia (Premier League 1.90, Championship 1.13, League One 0.42, League Two 0.29). There were no arrests at three-quarters of all regulated matches. Two of the Premier League sides relegated after the 2012-13 season, Reading and Wigan (pictured playing at Leicester City in September), each saw only one arrest at their home matches; Newcastle topped that Premier League table with 156 arrests. By division, most arrests at club home games were at Leeds (Championship, 59); Scunthorpe (League One, 36); and Oxford United (League Two, 34); and in the fifth tier, the Skrill Premier, Nuneaton, with 87.
More than half (58 per cent) of all matches were police-free. Some 44 Champions League and Europa League matches outside of England and Wales resulted in just 20 arrests of away fans.
The number of banning orders against fans of a club may rise and fall at any time as order expire, but as of September 2013, Chelsea (110) and Cardiff City (121) had more than 100. Third came Manchester United (91) and fourth West Ham United (65). While as a rule the higher league a team is in, the more the bans – because the larger the crowds – some lower league clubs have more banned fans than some Premier League sides, such as Grimsby (41), and Scunthorpe (38). Only two clubs in the top four divisions had no banned fans – Burton Albion and AFC Wimbledon of the fourth tier. Likewise in 2012-13 more banning orders were imposed against non-league Stockport County (six) and Nuneaton (four) than against some Premier League clubs. None of the four clubs with the most orders imposed during 2012-13 came from the Premiership: they were Bristol City (34), Scunthorpe (27), Leeds (24) and Millwall (23).
