Euro 2024 and class A drugs drive 14% increase in football-related arrests

England were runners-up to Spain at Euro 2024, while Wales were beaten by Poland in a play-off before the tournament.

There were 344 arrests for the possession of class A drugs across the season, an increase of 144 from the previous campaign. The 2022-23 season was the first in which possession of class A drugs was specifically recorded, having previously been recorded as ‘other arrests’.

Of the most common football-related arrest offence types, the possession of class A drugs was third (13%) behind violent disorder (19%) and public disorder (43%).

For arrests across the top five divisions of men’s football in England, there was a slight increase from 2,037 in 2022-2023 to 2,043 in 2023-24.

West Ham United accounted for the highest number of supporters arrested for the third consecutive season, with 103 arrests in 2023-24.

Manchester City and Manchester United were joint second for arrests, with both clubs seeing 88 detainments across the campaign. Arsenal (85) and Chelsea (67) were fourth and fifth most respectively.

In total, 825 new football banning orders were issued during the season – an increase of 21% compared with the previous season.