While the top six tiers of football matches played in England and Wales (and the Welsh top tier) saw some 1,932 football-related arrests, or a fall of 11 per cent compared with the previous season (and all related to men’s football), England and Wales had some 2,439 football banning orders in force (all but 14 issued to men), an increase of 12 per cent compared with the start of the 2024-25 season. That’s according to the latest statistics from the Home Office, about football-related arrests and banning orders.
Banning orders
Some 685 new banning orders were issued over the season. The most common football-related arrest offences by types were public disorder (32 per cent), and violent disorder (22pc). Slightly more arrests were of away supporters (a minority by far of fans at matches) than home spectators. Over the 2024-25 season, the two Premier League clubs in Manchester, United and City, had the most supporters arrested, 121 and 94 respectively. Next came two London Premier League clubs, West Ham and Chelsea, with 77 and 76; and Aston Villa in Birmingham with 71. For a second year, West Ham supporters had the most banning orders in force against them; and West Ham had the most bans, 39, issued to fans of any club.
Incidents
As a sign of how disorder happens down the football pyramid, of the 3,090 matches in the top five tiers of English football last season, incidents were reported at roughly half, whether violence, or throwing missiles and pyrotechnics or shouted ‘hate crime’. And among recent cases, courts have issued bans against fans from non-league clubs such as Kings Lynn, Maidstone, Scunthorpe, Darlington and Chester; besides Flint Town and Caernarfon in Wales.
Size of club appears not to matter in terms of how many fans have banning orders. In the last 11 years (out of an overall total of 5750) lower-tier Grimsby Town has had 282, and Mansfield Town 230; and in the second-tier Millwall 483 and Bristol City 336, while some clubs such as Wycombe Wanderers and Milton Keynes Dons have only had a handful.
Hate crime
Echoing online abuse aimed at England men’s footballers during ultimately unsuccessful tournaments such as the Euros in 2021, the Football Association (FA) reacted to racial abuse England international Jess Carter has suffered at this summer’s UEFA Women’s EURO 2025. FA CEO Mark Bullingham said: “As soon as we were made aware of the racist abuse Jess received, we immediately contacted UK police. They are in touch with the relevant social media platform, and we are working with police to ensure those responsible for this hate crime are brought to justice. Regrettably, this is not the first time this has happened to an England player, so we had measures in place to allow us to respond quickly and where possible provide information to support any potential police action.”
West Ham sanctioned
In May the FA imposed an ‘action plan’, £120,000 fine and warning on West Ham FC for their fans’ homophobic chanting when Chelsea hosted West Ham in the Premier League in February.
Police chief view
The stats should be taken with caution as even the police admit that they might deal with a suspect voluntarily attending interviews at a later date, rather than being arrested at the match, and not necessarily being included in these figures; partly due to a lack of police to go around, amid competing priorities typically on weekends.
Cheshire Chief Constable Mark Roberts is National Football Policing Lead. He said: “These figures show that we are continuing to see a worrying level of offending at men’s football matches across the country at all levels, which is leading to an increasing strain on policing resources and demonstrates why it is essential that football clubs need to start paying their fair share towards policing matches.
“Policing men’s football creates significantly more demand than any other event in terms of public order deployments nationally, meaning every week officers are taken away from policing communities to facilitate matches. Given the frequency of the games in the UK, it is a huge drain on our resources and means that we are essentially losing around 800 to 1200 officers every year to policing football.
“The cost to the public purse for policing football matches is extortionate, with taxpayers now providing £70m of policing each season – which cannot continue.
“As things stand, football clubs are only required to cover the costs incurred inside their ground or on their property – they do not have to pay a penny towards the policing of surrounding streets, city centres or towards the increasing marches to stadiums by fans. On top of this, 48 per cent of games across all leagues incur no charges for policing, with 95 per cent of the National League being police-free so to suggest fair cost recovery would put small clubs out of business is wide of the mark.
“In a nutshell, this means that we as the police are subsidising clubs that quite happily spend up to a £1bn in a single transfer window. That is why I am continuing to call for the government to speed up the ongoing consultation process into the current legislation. Despite the increasing financial strain, police forces are continuing to work hard to tackle football related offences. 2,439 fans are now subject to football banning orders, an increase of 12pc compared 2024, meaning that they cannot attend any matches, including those at international tournaments.
“The reporting of online hate crime has reduced this year. This is down to us continuing excellent work with social media companies to ensure that action can be taken against those responsible for online hate crimes. They have speeded up their processes and many now utilise filters to greater effect, thereby preventing offensive posts being published. However, further work needs to be done in these areas. We know that online abuse is still widely underreported, and we would encourage anyone affected by these despicable crimes to come forward and report them.
“Collectively we need to make football a safer space for the overwhelming majority of fans who want to enjoy the game. Anyone who commits a criminal offence either outside or inside a football ground can expect to face the consequences of their actions.”
