Football Banning Orders: Young Men And Safety On The Terraces
In 2022/23, 682 people behaved so badly that a court handed them football banning orders.
What is a Football Banning Order (FBO)?
It’s a court order that, since 1989, has allowed fans to be banned for offences such as:
- Violence
- Pitch invasion
- Throwing missiles
- Public order offences (including racism and tragedy chanting)
- Drink driving on the way to or from a game
- Ticket touting
More recently, the laws have been updated to also reflect online offences (such as sending racist abuse via social media), more drug offences and to better cover women’s football. Unsurprisingly, some offences are more common that others – violence and disorder are the most common reasons.
Football clubs can ban anyone from their own stadium, but Football Banning Orders can only be made via a court.
What does a ban cover?
The individual will be banned from all games involving teams in the top six leagues of men’s football, top two of the women’s game as well international matches.
In some orders, extra measures are taken. These can include not being allowed within a certain distance of the ground on match days, or having to hand in a passport when the national team are playing abroad.
How long does a football banning order last?
Generally, bans last for up to 5 years. However, if someone is jailed for their behaviour, then the court can ban them for even longer.
How many football banning orders are given out?
It’s hard to say what’s driving the more recent spike. However, the lack of attendance at matches during COVID is a likely factor: During this time, some banning orders will have expired. The spike in orders may be in part due to the authorities playing catch up (and rebanning some repeat offenders).
Who gets banned?
The details of every ban aren’t recorded – but of the FBOs where it has been recorded, it’s men. A whopping 99.4% of new orders went to men. The 18 – 34 age range is the most likely to be banned.
Which club has the most banning orders?
Let’s be honest – you’ll look at the next chart to see if it includes your football rivals. The truth is that size of club generally is a bigger factor than the reputation of fans. Typically, bigger clubs have more fans and so risk more incidents where there’s bans.
At the end of the 2023 season, the premier league table looked like this:
Outside the Premier League, Millwall and Birmingham City lead the pack. However, it’s not as simple as they have the fans with the worst behaviour – it might be that other clubs turn a blind eye more often than these ten.
What does this tell us about behaviour of young men more generally?
It’s tempting to draw conclusions about the behaviour of young men getting worse (because more of them are getting banned). Notably, the uptick since Covid is similar to a rise in suspensions in our schools. However, due to the fact that there may be some catch up going on, it’s still too early to draw those conclusions. Furthermore, it may be that more reporting and better quality evidence (e.g. more mobile phone footage
What’s the future?
Football banning orders have existed since 1989 and they are here to stay.
As time passes, will fans be even more willing to report racism and homophobia? If so, the number of banned fans will rise, because the football community will report bad behaviour more often.
The public are more willing to use smartphones to film abuse or violence – providing evidence that makes it increasingly hard for criminals to avoid detection.
It will also be interesting to see whether authorities react more strongly to end of season pitch invasions that are an annual sight.
More to read…
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Image credit: Unsplash / 9000Lives
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