We have read nearly 500 of the Football Association’s most serious disciplinary cases against clubs for crowd trouble – and you can search for them on our interactive map.
The rising tide of hate and violence at kids football matches is laid bare today with a Mirror investigation into the racism, sexism and homophobia that is scarring the beautiful game. Our investigation has found that nearly two thirds of the most serious cases of crowd trouble investigated by the Football Association this season is taking place at under 18s matches. But disorder is recorded as taking place throughout the sport, from grassroots to the top flights.
Under the FA’s rule E21, “A Club must ensure that spectators and/or its supporters (and anyone purporting to be its supporters or followers) conduct themselves in an orderly fashion whilst attending any Match”. It applies to both home and away supporters -spectators must not “use words or otherwise behave in a way which is improper, offensive, violent, threatening, abusive, indecent, insulting or provocative”.
It is also an offence to “throw missiles or other potentially harmful or dangerous objects at or on to the pitch”, or to carry out a pitch incursion, or to be discriminatory by referring to ethnic origin, colour, race, nationality, religion or belief, gender, gender reassignment, sexual orientation or disability. Clubs can defend themselves if the incidents were “the result of circumstances over which it had no control” or that it “used all due diligence” to fulfill its responsibilities.
The Football Association’s disciplinary commissioners look at factors like the severity of the incident and the previous charges the club has faced. We have been able to search through cases where the FA publishes “written reasons”, which are required where there is an “aggravated element”, such as assaults, physical contact and threatening or discriminatory behaviour.
Our map shows details of the written reasons published by the FA in the last two and a half seasons, since 2022 – and you can use it to find the full FA report on the incident. The FA told us there were 276 serious cases of crowd disorder last season, up 28% in a year. So far this season there have already been 177 upheld. The FA said that more cases were being reported and more matches played but that it had introduced a raft of new measures under a four-year plan to ”free” the game of discrimination.
This includes a new system of “penalty points” for bad conduct as well as league point deductions, extending a body cams pilot and revamping the punishment of “sinbins”. There is a new FA code of conduct for grassroots football and last month saw the first team – Pan Community First on the Isle of Wight – have its England Football accreditation removed, so it won’t be able to play any fixtures for the rest of the season. Up to 1,800 of the “worst disciplined teams” for both youth and adult football have been placed on to the FA’s Behaviour Improvement Programme.
An FA spokesperson said: “We strongly condemn any abusive or unacceptable behaviour, either on the pitch or from the sidelines, and we have clear standards of behaviour which we expect all grassroots football clubs, coaches and players to follow. This is a collective responsibility and we welcome and fully support action taken by leagues and clubs to help tackle this unacceptable behaviour in our game.” Growing numbers of these are from matches involving under 18s. This was up 45% last year and so far this year nearly two-thirds [62%] of the most serious cases investigated by the FA were at children’s matches.
The cases we found included:
* An under-12s match abandoned after a foul prompted allegedly “the worst set of parents” to storm the pitch.
* A woman playing football at a friendly match left “paranoid and hurt” after she was called a “black c**t” by spectators.
* A 17-year-old lineswoman called a “f****** slag” after she complained about being bombarded with sexist abuse.
* A referee who found himself ended up tailgated by the deranged father of an under-15s boy he sent off just minutes earlier.
* Young supporters visiting a Norfolk club who chanted “your gaffer is gay” and “You all take it up the b**” in a manner that was “deliberately discriminatory”.
Have you experienced abuse at football matches? Email nick.sommerlad@mirror.co.uk
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