A common ping in the inbox of the West Ham United Supporters’ Trust is a journalist asking why West Ham has the worst behaved fans. We don’t, of course, but it’s a complicated job to explain the numbers. The figures being used refer to police stats for the 2023/24 season, which state: ‘West Ham United had the highest number of arrests for the third consecutive year. ‘For supporters of clubs in the top five divisions, there were 2,043 football-related arrests, a similar number to the 2022 to 2023 season (2,037). ‘Around half (54%; 1,101) of the 2,043 football-related arrests were of supporters at away matches. ‘The club with the highest number of supporters arrested… was West Ham United for the third consecutive year.’ The stats were: 103 arrests, of which 62% were at home games. The most common offence type was public disorder (52 arrests). The stats also state: ‘In the 2023 to 2024 season, West Ham United supporters had the highest number of football banning orders in force (93) across all football clubs in England and Wales, ranking top for the first time since records began in the 2014 to 2015 season.’ The top five for arrests were West Ham (103), Man City (88), Man U (88), Arsenal (85) and Chelsea (67). The clubs with the most football banning orders were West Ham (93), Man U (89), Millwall (82), Everton (72) and Leicester (72). There’s no context given to any of these stats.
Arrests Per 100,000 Attendees: The Real Context
Elsewhere, the police do provide balance. They put the number of arrests in the context of the number of people who go to watch football. ‘Over the 2023 to 2024 season, around 47 million people attended men’s domestic and international matches, the highest number recorded since this data collection began (in the 2014 to 2015 season). ‘With 2,563 arrests, the arrest rate for the 2023 to 2024 season was 5.5 arrests per 100,000 attendees.’ it says before adding: ‘Excluding arrests made in England and Wales relating to overseas tournaments, there were 4.9 arrests per 100,000 attendees in the 2023 to 2024 season.’ There is a lovely graph too, showing arrests per 100,000 across the different tournaments, ranging from international matches at 34.8 down to the Championship at 3.8. The Premier League is the fourth lowest of the 10 categories at 4.9 per 100,000. The FA cup has 8.8. The police don’t put individual clubs’ arrest figures into the same context. West Ham played more than 50 matches in the season covered. WHUST has looked at the official attendance figures for all those matches. For home games we deducted 3,000 away fans for PL matches, 6,000 for EFL Cup and 9,000 for FA Cup fixtures. For our away matches we used the official allocation the club was given for each match. In total that gives a little over 1.44 million West Ham fan attendees at matches that season. That works out at 7.1 arrests per 100,000.
Attendance Figures and Fairer Comparisons
It would take some calculating to do the same sums for each club but the average Premier League attendance at the London Stadium for that season was 62,440 while the average at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge was just 39,576. Less the 3,000 away fans allocations, that’s just 36,576 home fans, compared with West Ham’s 59,440. Chelsea has 56% as many home fans at its PL matches, but, remember, had 67 arrests or 65% of the number West Ham had. Leicester had an average attendance of 31,238, so similarly would have a worse per 100,000 record. It is perfectly possible there were many more clubs with a worse arrest rate than West Ham if the police put the numbers in context per 100,000 fans.
The Stark Reality of Football Banning Orders
The football banning orders stats are even starker. It doesn’t take an Einstein to work out that Millwall having 82 with its small supporter base (average attendance 16,544) is far worse than West Ham’s 93. And remember too, the Met Police love football banning orders. West Ham’s designated football officer, PC Andy Sheldon, briefs on how much easier it is to get a conviction for a football banning order. There is a lower burden of proof and the accused is not entitled to legal aid, so most do not have any legal representation. People think justice means a fair trial with a jury and legal representation. None of that happens with football banning orders. Nothing similar exists for other sports. This is institutional prejudice against football fans.
Institutional Prejudice and the Royal Ascot Comparison
Here’s a fun fact: at Royal Ascot in June 2024, just as the season came to an end, the police made 36 arrests. The total attendance was 250,000. That’s 14.4 arrests per 100,000. And it’s not a one-off; there were 50 arrests in 2011. WHUST believes in one law for everyone, with no special offences for football, no special policing of football fans and no special sentencing guidelines that punish the same offence differently because it occurs at football. We want a truly level playing field.
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