The shocking rise of disorder at matches: why is it happening and what can be done?

If there’s one thing everyone in English football can currently agree on, it’s that there are unnerving levels of disorder at matches this season. Rules are being ignored, safety measures overwhelmed, arrests made on a regular basis. As one senior figure in the safety industry puts it: “There’s a song by the Clash called Bankrobber that has the line: ‘Imagine if all the boys in jail could get out now together.’ That’s what it feels like. They forget Hillsborough, they forget Heysel, they forget the Bradford fire and think: ‘Right, we can now behave like we want, because we’re free.’”

Fights between Tottenham and West Ham fans on two occasions. Projectiles thrown from the stands at Goodison Park and Stamford Bridge and pyrotechnics from the seats of Bloomfield Road. Pitch invaders at Norwich, Leicester and Arsenal (more than once). Trouble on the streets of Nottingham after the derby with Leicester and 18 arrests before, during and after last weekend’s fixture between Middlesbrough and Derby. Just a sample of the incidents this season and all after the “unprecedented” disorder that descended on Wembley last summer on the night of England’s first championship final since 1966.

Statistics released by the UK football policing unit (UKFPU) last month – not corroborated by the Home Office – reported an increase in arrests of 47% on the same period in the 2019-20 season and a 36% increase in reports of disorder at matches. Another thing people across the game can agree on, however, is that there is no one explanation for this increase. There are instead a series of contributory factors, the first being the pandemic.

On-and-off lockdown kept people in their homes for 18 months and out of stadiums for almost a season and a half.