Football clubs have been urged to contribute more to the cost of match policing to ease the burden on taxpayers. Chief Constable Mark Roberts, the UK's football policing lead, said the current model, under which clubs are not responsible for policing expenses outside stadiums,
"simply cannot continue".
Home Office statistics released on Thursday show incidents were reported at 1,644 matches last season in England and Wales, the highest figure since the UK Football Policing Unit (UKFPU) began collecting the data in 2017-18. Roberts said taxpayers shouldered £70m of police funding for football matches last season, as part of a model 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 the 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 a leading researcher in crowd behaviour, said he was not alarmed by the figures. He pointed out that reported incidents are different from football-related arrests and other police actions, of which there were 1,963 last season, down on the previous campaign.
Pearson said the increase could be because clubs are using improved recording systems and devices. He said arrests for violent disorder falling 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 said the number of arrests falling, despite an increase in football-related offences 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 possession of class A drugs was also included in football-related arrests.
Football-related online hate crimes almost double
The wider report shows there were 405 online hate crimes and abuse incidents recorded last season in connection with football, up from 234 the previous year. Of these, 387 related to men's football and 18 were attributed to the women's game.
Of the most common football-related arrest offence types, public disorder was highest at 38%, followed by violent disorder at 19% and possession of class A drugs at 17%.
There were 2,460 football banning orders in force at the end of the 2025-26 season, the highest number since the end of the 2011-12 campaign, when there were 2,731. Of these, 2,446, or 99.4%, were issued to males, while 1,480, or 60%, were issued to those aged between 18 and 34.
West Ham accounted for the highest number of banning orders for the third consecutive season, with 121. Manchester City had the highest number of supporters arrested or subject to other police actions last season, with 102.
Manchester United had the largest decrease in the number of fans arrested last season. There were 67 arrests, down from 121 in 2024-25, though the club still had the third-highest number of arrests.
World Cup fans 'exemplary' - but not at home
Figures released by the UK Football Policing Unit stated there were 22 arrests of England fans at the 2026 World Cup. This was an increase from zero at Qatar 2022 and three at Russia 2018, but UKFP said more supporters had attended the expanded tournament in which England played eight games.
The unit praised the
"exemplary behaviour of fans in the USA and Mexico", but said it was a different situation in the UK.
Domestically, there were 2,322 incidents and 391 arrests related to the World Cup. Of those, 93% of the incidents happened during England games.
Domestic abuse accounted for 17% (384) of all UK incidents, while there were 293 online hate incidents reported, with 161 of those during England's game against Ghana.
The harrowing dark side of England's World Cup exit
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Key Facts
- 1,644 matches reported incidents in England and Wales last season, the highest since 2017-18.
- Taxpayers covered £70m of police funding for football matches last season, according to Mark Roberts.
- There were 405 online hate crimes and abuse incidents last season, up from 234.
- There were 2,460 football banning orders in force at the end of the 2025-26 season.
- England fans were arrested 22 times at the 2026 World Cup.
