Manchester United supporters were involved in more football-related arrests where racism was involved than any other club in England across four seasons. The data from the Home Office investigated four seasons leading up to the 2017/18 campaign.
Manchester United Top List of Football-Related Arrests
Home Office Report Outlines Clubs Whom Regularly Offend
Data obtained by the Press Association (via Sky Sports) has revealed that 27 individuals labelled as United fans were arrested between the 2014/15 and 2017/18 campaigns.
The data, released by a Freedom of Information request, showed Championship sides Leeds United and Millwall each having 15 supporters arrested. Leicester City had 14 arrested while Chelsea had 13.
When racism has been recorded as a feature of an incident, the arresting officer must tick a box to validate this; therefore, the Home Office claims that the overall accuracy of the data cannot be 100% guaranteed.
Manchester United, however, pointed to their large attendances and stated that this means the percentage of supporters involved in racism offences was minuscule.
A club spokesperson said to Sky Sports: “There is no place for racism within our game, or in society as a whole, and we are committed to working to make football free from all forms of discrimination, whether through our own ‘All Red All Equal’ campaign or in support of Kick It Out and other organisations.
“This statistic applies to 0.0004 per cent of our match-going fanbase. It does not reflect the views or behaviour of our fans as a whole in any way. We continue with monitoring and liaison with authorities to try and identify and eradicate any forms of discriminatory behaviour, and we take appropriate action if it occurs.”
Other clubs with arrests in double figures were West Ham United (11) while Barnsley, Manchester City, Middlesbrough and Sunderland all had ten.
Racism Issues Continue into 2018/19 campaign
The 2018/19 season saw a number of racism-related incidents and arrests. Data for the most recent campaign will be released later this summer.
In April, Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling was racially abused by a Chelsea supporter. The London side suspended four fans from attending matches during the investigation into their behaviour.
However, the Crown Prosecution Service declared that there was insufficient evidence that the Chelsea fan’s language was racially aggravated.
Tottenham Hotspur‘s Danny Rose was also subjected to racial abuse; the Spurs defender called had monkey chants aimed at him during England’s Euro 2020 qualifier in Montenegro.
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