League table of football-related arrests revealed as clubs urged to foot police bill

A league table of football fans has been released as police call for more financial help in dealing with match day violence.The Home Office announced on Thursday that incidents were reported at 1,644 matches in England and Wales during the 2025-26 season – the highest figure since the UK Football Policing Unit (UKFPU) started collecting the data in 2017-18.West Ham remained the club with the highest number of banning orders in force – increasing from 112 to 121.

Manchester City were the club with the highest number of arrests (102), followed by Chelsea (76), Manchester United (67), Arsenal (66), Millwall (63).open image in galleryClubs with most football-related arrests in 2025-26 season (PA Wire)Chief Constable Mark Roberts of Cheshire Police said the current model of funding – under which he said £70million of the cost falls on taxpayers – “doesn’t work” and “simply cannot continue”.“We will continue to work with our partners including the Crown Prosecution Service, Premier League, EFL and FA to collectively make football a safe environment for the overwhelming majority of supporters who just want to enjoy the game,” Roberts said.

“However, a key part of this is looking at the funding provided to police forces by football clubs as the current model simply 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.“This means that taxpayers are left footing the £70m bill each season, which simply cannot continue.”

open image in galleryFootball clubs with most banning orders in 2025-26 season • (PA Wire)A Premier League spokesperson said: “The Premier League and its clubs work closely with police forces at a national and local level to ensure safe and welcoming environments for all fans.“We are investing more than £90million a season in stewarding, security, crime prevention in communities and a series of technology-led pilots in partnership with a number of police forces and the UKFPU.“This partnership approach will help the police to safely reduce the demand for policing around football matches, as the number of arrests continue to fall significantly over the last decade.”

The EFL has also been contacted for a response.For the 2023-24 season, football clubs covered £14.87m of the total policing cost, with taxpayers picking up the £56.

82m remainder, according to UKFPU figures.The Home Office figures published on Thursday found there were 2,460 banning orders in force as of June 1, 2026, the highest since the end of the 2011-12 season.There was also a 73 per cent rise in the number of online hate and abuse incidents in 2025-26 compared to the prior season – 405, up from 234.

Football-related arrests and police actions (1,963) were down by two per cent on the previous year, with 45 of those arrests made for unauthorised entry, which became a Schedule 1 offence under the Football Spectators Act 1989 on March 22 this year.This is the second consecutive season where the number of arrests has fallen. There was a 59 per cent increase in the number of football-related arrests between the last season before the Covid-19 pandemic – 2018-19 – and the first full season after it – 2021-22.

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