Football clubs have been urged to contribute more to the cost of match policing to ease the burden on taxpayers.
The current model whereby clubs are not responsible for policing expenses outside stadiums “simply cannot continue”, according to Chief Constable Mark Roberts, the UK’s football policing lead.
Statistics released on Thursday, external by the Home Office show incidents were reported at 1,644 matches last season in England and Wales – the highest figure since the UK Football Policing Unit (UKFPU) started collecting the data in 2017-18.
Chief Constable Roberts says taxpayers shouldered £70m of police funding for football matches last season, as part of a model which he believes “doesn’t work”.
“Football-related crime doesn’t simply stop when fans exit the stadium, but under the current system multi-billion-pound football clubs do not have to pay a penny towards the policing outside their grounds,” he said.
“This means that taxpayers are left footing the £70m bill each season, which simply cannot continue.”
Roberts’ comments come as statistics show an increase in “high severity” incidents at football matches last season.
Of the incidents reported, 159 were classed as “high severity” – up from 106 in the previous season.
Geoff Pearson, a professor of law at the University of Manchester and leading researcher in crowd behaviour, says he is not alarmed by the figures.
He points to reported incidents being different to football-related arrests and other police actions – of which there were 1,963 last season, down on the previous campaign.
The increase could be because clubs using improved recording systems and devices, he says.
Pearson says that arrests for violent disorder going down by 3% is an indicator of the UK police’s good work, adding that “football policing in this country is the envy of much of the world”.
“I’m not alarmed by the statistic in the slightest. If there had been a 50% increase in high severity incidents, I would expect violent disorder to have gone up, not down,” said Pearson.
“When lockdown happened in this country the British police continued to improve their practices. When there was that uptick in disorder across the world in football, the British police need to be commended to sticking to their guns and introducing things like safe standing.
“These statistics point to the reward of them doing that.”
In the 2021-22 season, when fans returned to stadiums following the Covid-19 pandemic, there were 2,198 football-related arrests with statistics remaining similar for the following two seasons.
That number decreased to 2,004 in the 2024-25 season, before falling by 40 again last season.
Pearson says the number of arrests falling, despite the increase in football-related offences going up over the last few years, is another indicator of the work being done by police.
Unauthorised entry at matches became a criminal offence in March as part of new legislation, while in 2024 the possession of class A drugs was also included in football-related arrests.
