Football disorder

[Ad@m]

I haven't seen this being discussed elsewhere.

Football hate crime at matches in England and Wales rose by 47% last season - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49752486

We're 3rd on the list - not good at all. Higher than Blues and would've been 2nd if Stoke hadn't drawn Port Vale in the EFL Trophy last season.

For all the (entirely justified) stick the FA are getting for their pitiful fine for the Blues fan who punched Grealish these stats (and the fact this isn't the first time we've been near the top of the list) suggest our club could do more to weed out the knobheads amongst our ranks.

[Brassneck]

42 arrests out of hundreds of thousands of fans who watched us play last season - Let's keep this in perspective.

Also, it's noteworthy that ourselves and Leeds took more fans away than anyone else last season.  I'd imagine most arrests were made at away games where drink played a major role.  I wonder what the list would look like if it was proportionate to fans travelling?  I suspect that Blues would be above us.

[Somniloquism]

55% was home games. 21 for public disorder and then a mixture of pitch invasions and singular for possession of weapon and a couple of others. Nothing on race or other items like that.

Blues were 3rd for banning orders which might explain their lower then usual results.

[Ad@m]

42 arrests out of hundreds of thousands of fans who watched us play last season - Let's keep this in perspective.

Also, it's noteworthy that ourselves and Leeds took more fans away than anyone else last season.  I'd imagine most arrests were made at away games where drink played a major role.  I wonder what the list would look like if it was proportionate to fans travelling?  I suspect that Blues would be above us.

There are plenty of clubs with much higher attendances than us who don't appear on the list.

There's no sensible way of explaining this away as an anomaly.

[Ads]

Leeds and us must have had the largest average always in the country, with an extra 4 games to travel to so no wonder we're near the top.

[PeterWithesShin]

Most of ours were for our chauffeurs parking the Rolls illegally.

[Dogtanian]

Everyone should be able to go to a game of football and feel safe, it really pisses me off that some people see it as an excuse to pick fights arguments with complete strangers.

Having been going home and away for ten years now, I’ve seen very little trouble personally and have always felt that we are not a bad crowd.  I have seen a number of idiots who made me feel ashamed over the years also, but on the whole I think there are clubs with much bigger problems than ours.

I’ve been pleased by the large number of kids I see at games and in the upper Holte over the last few seasons as that bodes well for the future and also suggests parents are comfortable with their children attending safely.  This wouldn’t be the case if we were as bad as that list would suggest.

Also remember that an increase in recording of an event doesn’t necessarily mean the frequency has increased.  If certain Forces decide to clamp down on certain behaviours more than others then minor incidents can inflate the total.

When we were all being marched by the Police from St Andrews across Brum I heard officers threaten fans with arrest if we attempted to leave the escort... hardly a serious incident.  When I was 17 I was arrested for assault because I grabbed a lad who had broken into my mate’s car and taken the handbrake off while it was parked on a hill.  Taken out of context it’s an arrest, but it’s hardly a social problem.

You also have to consider that there is an awful lot of cost associated with policing football.  I’m not suggesting the Police would wish to justify costs by making more arrests or to argue for more funds by showing a problem is getting worse, but like everything else in life these days it’s rarely black and white.

How many of us don’t actually feel safe at football matches these days?

[Dogtanian]

Most of ours were for our chauffeurs parking the Rolls illegally.

Luckily, all being lawyers, we were able to get them all awf.

[Brassneck]

42 arrests out of hundreds of thousands of fans who watched us play last season - Let's keep this in perspective.

Also, it's noteworthy that ourselves and Leeds took more fans away than anyone else last season.  I'd imagine most arrests were made at away games where drink played a major role.  I wonder what the list would look like if it was proportionate to fans travelling?  I suspect that Blues would be above us.

There are plenty of clubs with much higher attendances than us who don't appear on the list.

There's no sensible way of explaining this away as an anomaly.

It's less than 0.5% of our support ffs.  What exactly do you think the club could do to "weed out" such a negligible number?  VP is already probably the most CCTV'd area in Birmingham, there are stewards at every entrance and every exit.  Do you suggest placing stewards in every pub and every street corner?

There is actually no sensible way of explaining what the club could possibly do to get this (extremely) low figure down further.

[Pete3206]

The vast majority of our away support is fantastic.

[Dogtanian]

The vast majority of our away support is fantastic.

I completely agree.

[London Villan]

42 arrests out of 90,000 away fans or almost 1,000,000 fans attending games. Let’s not blow it out of proportion.

[Brazilian Villain]

IIRC Villa and Blues are always pretty high on these arrest lists. It could be that WMP are quicker to arrest than other forces, just a thought.

Obviously I'm not a regular now but I've nerve felt unsafe or heard racial abuse at a Villa game.
 

[Flin5tone]

42 fans, most of that will have been for minor incidents, probably arm waving or drunks.

I always feel very safe at Villa Park and think it's really nothing to worry about.

[Deano's Mullet]

Some bright spark on Small Heath forums reckoning all our arrests must be in Staffordshire. It amazes me the amount of people who cling to their myths. It really does.