Covid-19 lockdown might be blamed for increase in fan violence in English football

Police in Nottingham had to deal with post-match violence in the downtown area, with tables and chairs thrown by Leicester fans in a number of bars.

Worse was to follow on the pitch as one of the 4,000 Leicester fans who travelled to Nottingham's City Ground, rushed onto the pitch and appeared to punch the Nottingham Forest captain after he scored the team's third goal.

The violence before and during the match in Nottingham was the latest in a trend that experts say has seen a 50 per cent increase in football-related arrests so far this season compared to incidents recorded in English football before the COVID-19 lockdown, Xinhua reports.

According to Britain's Daily Telegraph, there have been over 80 football-related arrests this season across the top five divisions in English football.

Players have been hit by missiles thrown from the terraces, and there have been a number of assaults on emergency workers. Reports say there has been a rise in violence and disorder among younger fans.

Senior law lecturer Professor Geoff Pearson is an expert at the University of Manchester in football crowd disorder. In an interview with Xinhua, Pearson said there are indicators of a nationwide increase in levels of criminality, disorder, and anti-social behaviour in domestic football in England and Wales.

"Arrest statistics are notoriously unreliable as indicators of levels of criminality, and usually tell us as much about police priorities and resources as they do crime, but despite these reservations, I think the statistics illustrate at least a temporary uptick in incidents of (mainly low-level) disorder and anti-social behaviour. That's a view shared by my police officers, safety officers, and fan representatives that I work with," he said.

Pearson said his suspicion was that the increase is primarily linked to the effect of the COVID-19 lockdowns, when fans were almost entirely unable to attend live matches from March 2020 until July 2021.

"The return of fans to matches is probably linked with increased levels of misbehaviour, which may be the result of fans deprived of carnivalesque expressions of identity wishing to party longer and harder than pre-lockdown. It may also be linked to a turnover of regular fans and an influx of younger fans and irregular fans who may be less aware of the norms of football spectatorship, less deterred by the threat of CCTV, banning orders, and a loss of a season ticket, and fan groups that have less established behavioural norms and peer-regulation capabilities," Pearson added.

He said the COVID-19 lockdown has almost certainly had a serious impact on the ability of police and stewards to manage crowds.

"Effective football policing operations rely upon the development of relationships between specialist police officers and the fan groups they are managing. It also provides intelligence about numbers expected to travel to matches and levels of the threat posed by individuals. There has been, in most cases, a 16-month gap in this vital work which will inevitably hinder forces in effective management of football crowds," he said.

The loss of many experienced stadium stewards leaving the profession during lockdown was also a factor. With closed down sports events, but also pubs and nightclubs, an increase in issues was almost inevitable, he said.

"I would expect this uptick will settle down as the police rebuild those relationships and norms of fan behaviour are re-established. However, that's not to say that it won't get worse before it gets better, particularly towards the end of the season. As for other countries, I do know that there are similar concerns expressed in relation to football in France," Pearson said.

Senior lecturer in the Football Industry Group at the University of Liverpool, Kieran Maguire said as a football supporter he has seen an increase in misbehaviour at stadiums.

"It could be something like a fan running onto the pitch to 'celebrate' a goal, but there are a combination of factors to explain the increase in misbehaviour," Maguire said.

"Often it is a supporter realises his actions will reach social media and give him that two minutes of fame. They think they can outrun the stewards.

"But also over the last two years, there seems to be more aggression, partly due to Covid and the lockdowns. Times are tough and people are angry with a lot of things.

"People have become more polarised and this is reflected in life in general. Within football, this behaviour can be easily controlled by increased stewarding.

"Meanwhile, some people risk losing their jobs because they have behaved like idiots at a football ground."

Like Pearson, Maguire also believes the absence of fans from stadiums during the lockdowns has influenced current misbehaviour.

"Common sense has quickly been overcome by bad behaviour or people losing control, and we see things happening like the events at the match in Nottingham."