Rise in UK Football-Related Violent Disorder Arrests After Lockdowns: Expert

Everton's Irish defender Seamus Coleman celebrates with Everton's fans invading the football pitch to celebrate at the end of the English Premier League football match between Everton and Crystal Palace at Goodison Park in Liverpool, northwest England, on May 19, 2022. Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images

English football has experienced a sharp rise in anti-social behaviour and violence following the end of lockdowns, according to government statistics.

There were 2,198 football-related arrests in the 2021–22 season, up 59 percent from the last comparable pre-pandemic period in 2018–19, according to official statistics from the Home Office.

Senior law lecturer Professor Geoff Pearson, an expert in football crowd disorder and hooliganism at the University of Manchester, told The Epoch Times that it’s clear there has been an uptick in certain low-level disorder and anti-social behavior that followed the end of lockdowns.

18-Month Break

Pearson warned in February that the 18-month break in football crowds could get worse towards the business end of the season, stirring up fears of a return to the days of the football firms of the 1970s and ‘80s.

The report noted that in the previous season (2020–21), 93 percent of matches were played without spectators and 7 percent were played at various reduced capacities. None were played at full capacity.

Arrests for violent disorder increased by 72 percent (+186) and arrests for public disorder increased by 50 percent (+262) compared with the 2018–19 season.

The most reported types of incidents were pyrotechnics (729 matches where incidents were reported), throwing missiles (561), and public order or anti-social behaviour incidents involving youth supporters (444).

The most common football-related arrest offence types were public disorder (36 percent), violent disorder (20 percent), and pitch incursion (14 percent).

In the latest season, Birmingham City supporters had the second highest number of football banning orders in force (57), followed by Millwall (52).

Lockdown Effects

“Arrest statistics don’t tell the whole story, they are notoriously unreliable and they tell you more about police numbers and police priorities than they do about levels of different crimes,” said Pearson, adding that it’s best to treat the numbers with a “little bit of caution.”

“But I think it’s clear from everybody you speak to and all the evidence put together, including those arrest statistics, that we have an uptick in certainly low-level disorder and anti-social behavior that followed the end of lockdown,” he said, adding that last season was worse than those preceding it.

“For football, it’s clear that lockdown has had a number of effects, some related to fan behaviour and some related to crowd management. In terms of fan behavior, there was undoubtedly a season-and-a-half without fans being able to go to matches. When they finally did go to matches, they wanted to party a bit harder than they had done previously almost to make up for it,” he said.

Leeds fans invade the pitch during the English Premier League football match between Leeds United and West Ham United at Elland Road in Leeds, northern England, on Sept. 25, 2021. Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images

Last May, G. K. Still, a visiting professor of crowd science at the University of Suffolk, told The Epoch Times that a spate of pitch invasions was “alarming” and could be linked to lockdowns.

“They are basically celebratory. But restrictions are being lifted and people have forgotten the rules and have become over-excited,” Still said.

Pearson said the trend was notable for the start of the season for those first matches, but also for every derby match, which was the first football experience for many fans post-lockdown.

“That’s why I said back in February that it would get worse towards the end of the season before it got better,” said Pearson.

“It was always going to be a season-long issue,” he added.

Pearson said that problems with crowd management have lasted all season as well, such as with the security industry and the number of experienced stewards that are available to manage football crowds.

“Likewise the number of experienced police officers and the gaps in intelligence in terms of football crowds that were created by the pandemic. Those will all take time to rebuild,” added Pearson.

Season-Long Issue

He stressed that it’s not a return to the 1980s era, which became indelibly associated with violent English football supporters, dubbed at the time “the English disease.”

“From the late 1960s to the late 1980s, problems of violence and disorder around stadiums in the UK were quite common,” said Pearson.

He added that problems were significantly worse and “resulted in changes to the law and the way matches were policed, and the structure of football stadiums.”

“It’s just reassuring we are not returning to those days,” he said.

Chris Summers contributed to this report.