Official Statistics

Football-related arrests and banning orders, England and Wales: 2020 to 2021 season

Published 14 October 2021

Applies to England and Wales

Frequency of release: Annual

Forthcoming releases: Home Office statistics release calendar

Home Office responsible statistician: Jenny Bradley

Press enquiries: pressoffice@homeoffice.gov.uk Telephone: 0300 123 3535

Public enquiries: PublicOrderStatistics@homeoffice.gov.uk

This release presents official statistics on football-related arrests, football banning orders, and reported incidents of football-related anti-social behaviour, violence and disorder.

1. Summary

The 2020 to 2021 football season was impacted by restrictions relating to Covid-19. All figures presented on football banning orders, arrests and reported incidents will have been affected by changes in the way spectators were able to view and attend matches.

In the 2020 to 2021 football season, all 2,978 scheduled matches were played. Of these, 2,766 (93%) were played without spectators and 212 (7%) were played at various reduced capacities (50%, 75% etc.). None were played at full capacity.

Arrests
In the 2020 to 2021 football season, there were 116 football-related arrests under Schedule 1 of the Football Spectators Act 1989 (as amended). Of these, the most common offence types were violent disorder (36%) and public disorder (34%). There has been a downward trend in football-related arrests since the 2010 to 2011 football season. Arrests in the latest season are around 8% of the 2018 to 2019 football season (pre-Covid) level and will have been impacted by the fact that the vast majority of matches (93%) were played without spectators.

In addition, there were 24 football-related arrests by British Transport Police and 29 other (non-Schedule 1) arrests at football matches in the 2020 to 2021 football season.

Football banning orders
As at 1 August 2021, 1,359 football banning orders were in force. The total number of football banning orders has been on a consistent downward trend since the 2011 to 2012 football season. In the 2020 to 2021 football season, 208 new banning orders were issued, which is around 38% of the 2018 to 2019 football season (pre-Covid) level. These have also been impacted by the fact that the vast majority of matches (93%) were played without spectators, although to a lesser extent than arrests as a banning order may relate to arrests from the previous season.

Reported incidents at football matches

Incidents were reported at 79 of the 212 football matches with spectators in the 2020 to 2021 football season (37%).

The most reported types of incidents were pyrotechnics (38 matches where incidents were reported), other incidents in the stadium (27) and public order or anti-social behaviour incidents involving youth supporters (24).

2. Introduction

This release presents official statistics on football-related arrests, football banning orders, and reported incidents of football-related anti-social behaviour, violence and disorder.

Football banning order: A preventative measure imposed by a court following a football-related offence, with the aim to prevent violence or disorder at or in connection with regulated football matches. See the user guide for further information.

Football-related arrests are those to which Schedule 1 of the Football Spectators Act 1989 (as amended) applies.

Reported incidents include football-related anti-social behaviour, violence and disorder involving supporters of English and Welsh clubs, playing in England and Wales. Reports of incidents are submitted to the UK Football Policing Unit (UKFPU) by police dedicated football officers (DFOs). These reports may be informed by information obtained from partner organisations such as The Football Association and Kick It Out.

The impact of COVID-19

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared that the COVID-19 outbreak was a global pandemic. A range of restrictions relating to the pandemic began on 12 March 2020. In the 2020 to 2021 football season, covering 1 August 2020 to 31 July 2021, all 2,978 scheduled matches were played. Of these, 2,766 were played without spectators and 212 were played at various reduced capacities (50%, 75% etc.). None were played at full capacity.

The restrictions relating to football matches, as well as more general restrictions, impacted on the number of football banning orders and football-related arrests made and incidents recorded over this period.

Most season-on-season comparisons have been retained. Whilst figures will have been impacted by the pandemic, they are a valid measure of change over the period of the pandemic, and reflect the restrictions in place during this time. See the user guide for more information.

Figures within the publication will have been impacted to different extents. Football banning orders, arrests and reported incidents are either associated with football-specific offences involving spectators at the match (such as pitch incursion and throwing missiles inside a stadium), or can involve people in the vicinity of a match (such as violent disorder and public disorder). They can also cover a range of generic criminal offences committed in connection with a football match (at any place within a period of 24 hours either side of a match).

The user guide provides additional information on the coverage of the data, quality and methodology, information on the conventions used in the statistics, and relevant legislation.

The data tables provide supplementary data to those presented in this release.

The ‘Football-related arrests and banning order statistics’ release is an official statistics output produced to the highest professional standards and free from political interference. It has been produced by statisticians working in the Home Office Analysis and Insight Directorate in accordance with the Home Office’s ‘Statement of compliance with the Code of Practice for official statistics’ which covers our policy on revisions and other matters. The Home Office Chief Statistician and Head of Profession for statistics reports to the National Statistician with respect to all professional statistical matters, oversees all Home Office official statistics products with respect to the Code of Practice and is responsible for their timing, content and methodology.

3. Football banning orders

Football banning orders may be made by the courts to help prevent violence or disorder at, or in connection with, any regulated football matches. An individual subject to a banning order is prevented from attending all regulated matches in the UK and may be required to surrender their passport to the police before overseas matches and tournaments. Banning orders are issued either following a conviction for a football-related offence or following a complaint by a local police force, British Transport Police (BTP), or the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The statutory duration of a football banning order is a minimum period of 3 years and no more than 5 years. In cases where a custodial sentence was imposed for the original offence, a minimum period of 6 years and no more than 10 years applies. For more information, see the user guide.

Football banning orders

As at 1 August 2021, there were 1,359 football banning orders in force. This compares with 1,621 in the 2019 to 2020 football season and 1,771 in the 2018 to 2019 football season (prior to restrictions relating to the pandemic).

An individual can have multiple bans. Therefore, the number of bans is not equal to the number of individuals who have a ban.

Of the 1,359 football banning orders in force in the 2020 to 2021 football season, 208 (15%) were new football banning orders (issued during the 2020 to 2021 football season between 1 August 2020 to 31 July 2021). This compares with 360 (22%) in the 2019 to 2020 football season and 549 (31%) in the 2018 to 2019 football season (prior to restrictions relating to the pandemic).

A banning order may be imposed by a court in the season after the incident occurred, so some relate to arrests from the previous season.

Figure 1: Number of football banning orders in force in England and Wales, from 2011 to 2012 football season to 2020 to 2021 football season

Source: Home Office, Football-related arrests and banning order statistics, England and Wales, 2020 to 2021 season, Table 2 and 3.
Notes: Extraction dates of new banning order data varied year-on-year. See the data tables for data extraction dates.

Of the 1,359 banning orders in force as at 1 August 2021, almost all (99.4%; 1,351) were issued to males. Around three-quarters (71%; 963) were issued to those aged between 18 and 34 and 3% (38) were issued to those aged under 18.

4. Football-related arrests

Statistics on football-related arrests are submitted by the 43 police forces in England and Wales, and BTP, to the UKFPU. For the purpose of these statistics, ‘football-related arrests’ are arrests for offences specified in Schedule 1 to the Football Spectators Act 1989 (as amended) – these include football-specific offences (such as pitch incursion and throwing missiles inside a stadium) and a range of wider offences committed in connection with a regulated football match.

In addition, a person may be arrested at a football match which is not covered by Schedule 1, which can include possession of drugs and theft. For the purpose of these statistics, these arrests are termed ‘other arrests’.

Schedule 1 football-related arrests

During the 2020 to 2021 football season, there were 116 football-related arrests in connection with regulated international and domestic football matches involving English and Welsh clubs and the national teams (excluding BTP arrests; see the BTP section for football-related arrests by BTP). This compares with 1,089 in the 2019 to 2020 football season and 1,381 in the 2018 to 2019 football season (prior to restrictions relating to the pandemic). Nearly two-thirds (63%; 73) of the 116 arrests in the 2020 to 2021 football season occurred outside the football ground, which compares with under half of arrests in the 2019 to 2020 football season (45%) and 2018 to 2019 football season (41%).

Figure 2: Schedule 1 Football-related arrests by location of arrest, from 2011 to 2012 football season to 2020 to 2021 football season

Source: Home Office, Football-related arrests and banning order statistics, England and Wales, 2020 to 2021 season, Table 8.
Notes: Figures include arrests at all regulated international and domestic football matches involving English and Welsh clubs and the national teams, playing in the UK and overseas.

Data by location of arrest are not available prior to the 2014 to 2015 football season.

National team matches

During the 2020 to 2021 football season, there were 92 football-related arrests at England and Wales national team matches, of which none occurred abroad. All of the 92 football-related arrests were at England national team matches and 90 occurred at Euro 2020 matches. Of the 90 football-related arrests at Euro 2020, 43% were at matches against Italy (39), 31% at matches against Scotland (28) and 20% at matches against Denmark (18).

There were a further 6 football-related arrests involving international teams playing at Euro 2020 at Wembley. All 6 arrests occurred at the Italy and Spain match.

Most common football-related offence type was violent disorder

The most common offence types were violent disorder (36%), public disorder (34%) and alcohol offences and or driving under influence of drugs (11%), as shown in Figure 3. These were also the most common offence types in the previous year; (public disorder (34%), violent disorder (26%) and alcohol offences and or driving under influence of drugs (11%)).

Figure 3: Football-related arrests by offence type, from 2011 to 2012 football season to 2020 to 2021 football season

Source: Home Office, Football-related arrests and banning order statistics, England and Wales, 2020 to 2021 season, Table 5.
Notes: Figures include arrests at all regulated international and domestic football matches involving English and Welsh clubs and the national teams, playing in the UK and overseas. Alcohol offences include driving under the influence of drugs. Other includes racist or indecent chanting, ticket touting, possession of an offensive weapon, possession of pyrotechnics, breach of a banning order and criminal damage and or offences against the property.

Analyses on clubs with the highest number of supporters arrested and football-related arrests per 100,000 attendees have been omitted for the 2020 to 2021 football season due to the low number of spectators present at football matches during the pandemic.

Football-related arrests by British Transport Police

In the 2020 to 2021 football season, there were 24 football-related arrests reported by BTP in connection with regulated international and domestic football matches involving English and Welsh clubs and the national teams. This compares with 114 in the 2019 to 2020 football season and 155 in the 2018 to 2019 football season (prior to restrictions relating to the pandemic). The most common offence type was violent disorder (58%; 14 arrests). For more information on football-related arrests by BTP see the user guide.

Other arrests (non-Schedule 1)

A person may be arrested at a football match for an offence not covered by Schedule 1, which can include possession of drugs and theft. For the purpose of these statistics, these arrests are termed ‘other arrests’.

In the 2020 to 2021 football season, there were 29 other arrests in connection with regulated international and domestic football matches involving English and Welsh clubs and the national teams. This compares with 204 in the 2019 to 2020 football season and 347 in the 2018 to 2019 football season (prior to restrictions relating to the pandemic). The way in which ‘other arrests’ are recorded means that it is not possible for these to be published by offence type. For more information see the user guide.

5. Reported incidents at football matches

Reported incidents include football-related anti-social behaviour, violence and disorder involving supporters of English and Welsh clubs, playing in England and Wales. Reports of incidents are submitted to UKFPU by police dedicated football officers (DFOs). These reports may be informed by information obtained from partner organisations such as The Football Association and Kick It Out.

Figures presented in this section relate to the number of football matches where an incident was reported to have occurred, and not the number of individual incidents. Multiple incidents may be reported per match.

Incidents were reported at 79 of the 212 football matches with spectators in the 2020 to 2021 football season

In the 2020 to 2021 football season, there were 2,978 regulated domestic football matches involving English and Welsh teams played in England and Wales and of these 212 had spectators present (at various capacities). Incidents were reported at 79 of the 212 football matches with spectators (37%). This compares with 969 in the 2019 to 2020 football season (40% of the matches with spectators) and 1,007 in the 2018 to 2019 football season (33%; prior to restrictions relating to the pandemic).

Reported incidents at football matches by incident severity

A post-match incident report assessment is conducted after each regulated domestic football match and allocates a low, medium, or high risk category to each match depending on the severity of incidents that occurred before, during and after the match. Incident severities were given only for matches with spectators (at various capacities).

In the 2020 to 2021 football season, there were 66 matches with low severity incidents (84%), 7 matches with medium severity incidents (9%) and 6 matches with high severity incidents (8%).

Reported incidents by type

Figures on reported incidents are available by type of incident. More than one incident type may be reported at each match, so the sum of the incident types is greater than the number of matches where an incident was reported.

The most commonly reported types of incident involved pyrotechnics (at 38 matches) and other incidents in the stadium (at 27 matches).

There were 24 matches where public order or anti-social behaviour incidents involving youth supporters (a supporter aged 25 or under) were recorded. These include planned or spontaneous incidents at or in connection with a football event.

In the 2020 to 2021 football season, hate crime incidents were reported in relation to 4 matches. Of the 4 matches, hate crime incidents related to race were reported at 2 matches and related to sexual orientation at 2 matches.

The number and types of incidents reported at football matches are likely to be affected not only by the reduced number of matches with spectators present, but also the reduced capacity and social distancing required at those matches where spectators were present.

UKFPU, along with other stakeholders, are currently exploring how best to capture and report on all online abuse and hate crime connected to football. These are recorded through a number of different streams, and it is not currently possible to fully capture and report on them alongside figures on hate crime reported at specific matches. A data confirmation exercise has subsequently confirmed that online incidents of hate crime were not captured in the experimental incident data for the 2019 to 2020 football season.

Of the incidents reported at 79 football matches, incidents occurred at 4 England matches at Euro 2020.

In addition to the incidents reported at 79 football matches involving English and Welsh teams, there were also incidents reported at 2 of the Euro 2020 matches played at Wembley involving non-UK teams.

For more information on reported incidents at football matches, see Tables 11 to 13.

7. User guide

Football banning orders and football-related arrests

Uses of the statistics

Uses of the football-related arrests and banning orders are listed below using the standard categorisation for official statistics.

a) Informing the general public’s choices:

• about the state of the economy, society and the environment – figures are used by national and local media in reports of the behaviour of football supporters
• about the activity of the police – figures are requested via Parliamentary Questions and Freedom of Information requests

b) Government policy making and monitoring:

Statistics are used to inform government policy and operational decisions by the police to mitigate the risk of future football-related disorder.

c) Resource allocation – typically by central and local government:

Statistics on football-related arrests and banning orders demonstrate the scale of football disorder; and the police and CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) activities.

Definitions and legislation

A football banning order (FBO) is a civil order which may be made by a court to help prevent violence or disorder at or in connection with regulated football matches.

The court must make a FBO where an offender has been convicted of a relevant offence (i.e. an offence specified in Schedule 1 to the Football Spectators Act 1989) and it is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe that making a FBO would help to prevent violence or disorder at or in connection with any regulated football matches. If the court is not satisfied, it must state that fact and give its reasons. The police, BTP or CPS may make an application to the court to make a FBO in respect of a person who has at any time caused or contributed to violence or disorder, whether in the UK or elsewhere.

An individual subject to a FBO is prevented from attending regulated football matches in the UK. In addition, during a ‘control period’ for an overseas regulated football match or tournament, the enforcing authority (Football Banning Orders Authority, FBOA) can issue a notice to a person who is subject to a FBO, requiring that they report to a local police station and surrender their passport. A FBO may impose any additional requirements the court sees fit in relation to any regulated football matches.

A FBO lasts a minimum of 3 years and a maximum of 10 years. The Breach of an order is a criminal offence punishable by a maximum sentence of 6 months in prison, an unlimited fine, or both.

Although in general one FBO equates to one individual, the number of existing banning orders is not necessarily the same as the number of individuals subject to FBOs, as an individual can be subject to more than one banning order. Furthermore, a banned individual may follow more than one football club so their FBO would appear more than once in the figures; however, the number that this applies to is small.

An individual may be made subject to a FBO in one of two ways: either at a hearing following a conviction for a football-related offence or on application to a court from the police or CPS (in which case the individual will not necessarily have been arrested).

In addition, the time from an arrest to the imposition of a FBO can vary in length given an order may only be imposed by a court. For example, an individual arrested during the 2020 to 2021 football season would be included in the 2020 to 2021 arrest figures but may not be made subject to a FBO until sometime later, meaning the FBO would form part of the figures of a future year’s release. Football banning orders were first introduced in 2000 and comparable data are available from the 2010 to 2011 football season.

Data coverage

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared that the COVID-19 outbreak was a global pandemic. A range of restrictions relating to the pandemic began on 12 March 2020. In the 2020 to 2021 football season, covering 1 August 2020 to 31 July 2021, all 2,978 scheduled matches were played. Of these, 2,766 were played without spectators and 212 were played at various reduced capacities (50%, 75% etc.). None were played at full capacity.

The restrictions relating to football during this period, as well as more general restrictions (for example, the closure of courts preventing the issue of any football banning orders), had the effect of decreasing the total number of football banning orders and football related arrests and incidents relating to specific matches over the 2020 to 2021 football season.

Statistics on banning orders were taken from the Football Banning Orders Authority (FBOA) (part of Home Office UKFPU) records.

The total banning orders dates are as at: 29 November 2011; 9 November 2012; 20 September 2013; 3 September 2014; 8 September 2015; 1 August 2016; 7 August 2017; from 2018, the figures are as at 1 August.

Extraction dates for the new banning orders data varies each year. The small variation in the duration of periods covered year-on-year should be considered when making season-on-season comparisons. See the data tables for data extraction dates.

Statistics on football-related arrests are submitted by the 43 police forces in England and Wales, and BTP, to the UKFPU. Football-related arrests are those to which Schedule 1 of the Football Spectators Act 1989 applies. This includes football-specific offences (such as pitch incursion and throwing missiles inside a stadium) and a range of generic public order offences committed in connection with a football match (at any place within a period of 24 hours either side of a match).

BTP officers may escort trains before and after matches, and patrol stations where large numbers of fans, or fans from different or rival teams, are expected.

Statistics on football-related arrests cover the 2020 to 2021 football season and information on all banning orders in force is reported as at 31 July 2021 (data reference dates for new banning orders issued in the 2020 to 2021 football season was 1 August 2020 to 31 July 2021).

Data collection and preparatory work

Throughout the season, football-related arrest data are collected and submitted to UKFPU by police forces in England and Wales and the BTP.

Banning orders are submitted to the FBOA, as enforcing authority, by courts in England and Wales or the CPS. Following the court making a FBO, it is required to notify the FBOA, who administer the banning order.

Once all data have been received and collated by UKFPU, officials carry out a sense check and query any outliers or anomalies with the respective police DFO.

The data are then supplied to Home Office statisticians by UKFPU. Following this, the data undergo further scrutiny by Home Office statisticians, including validation and variance checks as part of their quality assurance process, for example to ensure that the number of banning orders issued in the 2020 to 2021 football season do not exceed the total number of banning orders as at 1 August 2021.

Data which still appear to be outliers or anomalies are sent to UKFPU for further investigation and where necessary are followed up with the relevant DFO.

Other arrests

Definition

‘Other arrests’ at football matches are those not covered by Schedule 1 of the Football Spectators Act 1989 (as amended). This includes offences such as the possession of drugs and theft.

Data source

The data are extracted from the Home Office’s football database and derived from arrests submitted by the 43 police forces in England and Wales to the UKFPU.

Data quality

‘Other arrests’ were newly established in the 2018 to 2019 football season release and as such were initially designated as Experimental Statistics. Statisticians in the Home Office have worked with UKFPU to improve the quality of these statistics and from the 2020 to 2021 football season these are designated as official statistics.

Home Office statisticians’ preparatory and quality assurance exercises have identified limitations in the data and how it can be used and interpreted. ‘Other arrests’ broken down by offence type are not available owing to incomplete records on the football database.

Quality and process checks carried out

These statistics are compiled by Home Office statisticians. They have worked closely with the UKFPU to quality assure the data. These checks follow the QAAD guidance (Quality Assurance of Administrative Data) and include:

• ensuring the data provided is complete, or as close as possible, given the recording capacity of the database (for example ensuring home and away teams are specified)
• querying contradictory data (for example where the team supported contradicts location of game, incorrect offence types) and working with UKFPU to correct the data where possible

These recording and data quality issues are not uncommon, and it is expected that the quality of the data will improve as the collection continues.

Improvements to data quality

Statisticians in the Home Office will work with UKFPU to further improve the quality of these statistics as the collection continues. This will include, for example, consulting individual DFOs to address areas of their data collection to rectify errors or incomplete records.

Rounding

Data are provided unrounded in the accompanying data tables of ‘Football-related arrests and banning orders, England and Wales’ publication. This transparency allows users to exploit the data further. However, caution should be taken when comparing small differences between time periods as figures may not be accurate to the last digit.

Percentages in the release are rounded to the nearest per cent using the round-half-away-from-zero method. For example, 23.5 per cent will be rounded to 24 per cent, and -23.5 per cent will be rounded to -24 per cent.

Where data are rounded, they may not sum to the totals shown, or, in the case of percentages, to 100% because they have been rounded independently.

Reported incidents of football-related anti-social behaviour, violence and disorder

Definition

The data collected are reported incidents of football-related anti-social behaviour, violence and disorder involving supporters in connection with English and Welsh matches.

The data include:

• Football clubs competing in the top five English divisions
• English Cup competitions
• European Cups
• International Team matches played in England or Wales
• Pre-season friendlies

The data exclude:

• International away matches
• European away matches
• BTP
• Pre-season overseas away matches
• Scottish matches
• Women’s football matches

Incidents are included if they occur 24 hours before or after the start or end of a regulated match, and include those that occur inside or outside of the football stadium.

The incidents may be related to arrests and or banning orders, but it is not possible to link the data using the underlying data sources.

Data source

The data are extracted from the Home Office’s football database and derived from reports of incidents submitted by police DFOs. Where the DFO is not present at a football match, for example at ‘Police Free’ matches, the DFO will gather information from a variety of sources, for example partner organisations such as the governing body ‘The Football Association’ and the campaigning organisation ‘Kick It Out’ who tackle all forms of discrimination in football.

Data quality

As these data are newly established in the 2018 to 2019 football season release and as such were initially designated as Experimental Statistics. Statisticians in the Home Office have worked with UKFPU to improve the quality of these statistics and from the 2020 to 2021 football season these are designated as official statistics.

Figures on reported incidents presented in this report relate to the number of football matches where an incident was reported to have occurred, and not the number of individual incidents. Multiple incidents may take place at one match.

Quality and process checks carried out

These statistics are compiled by Home Office statisticians who work closely with the UKFPU to quality assure the data. These checks include:

• identifying duplicate data
• ensuring the data provided are complete, or as close as possible, given the recording capacity of the database (for example ensuring each record has incident and match details) and working with UKFPU to correct the data where possible
• taking a sample of records to compare the free text report summary against the incidents details
• investigating the proportion of matches with a report incident

Improvements to data quality

Statisticians in the Home Office work with UKFPU to quality assure these data. This includes, for example, consulting individual DFOs to address areas of their data collection to rectify errors or missing data. In preparation for the collection of data for future seasons, updates and improvements will be made to the football database to continuously improve the coverage and completeness of incoming data.

7. Further information

Forthcoming and previous statistical releases

Forthcoming publications are pre-announced on the statistics release calendar on the GOV.UK website.

The football-related arrests and banning order statistics, England and Wales statistical releases can be found at: Football-related arrests and banning orders, England and Wales.

Feedback and enquiries

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