Stoke City: Big fall in Stoke fan arrests
STOKE City have played their part in a dramatic drop in football arrests after seeing their own figures fall by almost half last season.
Newly-released statistics show the number of Stoke fans arrested in 2011/12 plummeted to 38 from 70 the season before.
Nine of those 38 were arrested at home games and the other 29 at away matches, and only four were for the most serious offence of violent disorder.
Nationally, arrests plunged by 24 per cent to 2,363 in domestic, European and international fixtures in England and Wales.
Panasonic Store Camera•20x Optical Zoom LEICA DC Lens from 24mm...
View details
What Digital camera Gold award winning DMCTZ40
SAVE £20 off our store price ONLY with this voucher
Plus you can also claim a SD card or spare battery
Choice of colours, free parking behind store
Terms: Print this voucher and hand in at Panasonic Store Hanley to save £20 off our store price ONLY £269.90
Contact: 01782 342609
Valid until: Friday, May 31 2013
That amounts to 0.01 per cent of the total footballing-watching population, or one arrest for every 15,782 spectators.
A total of just 16 Port Vale fans were arrested last season and only four from Crewe.
Malcolm Clarke, chairman of the Football Supporters' Federation and a Stoke season-ticket holder, said: "The dramatic fall in the number of arrests shows that the overwhelming majority of fans reject football violence."
Stoke accounted for just one of the 27 arrests among the 100,000 plus supporters who travelled abroad to Champions League and Europa League matches last season.
Banning orders nationwide were down 13 per cent to 2,750 by the start of this month.
Stoke have 25 banning orders in operation on their fans, up by four in the last 12 months, the 15th highest in the Premier League.
Port Vale also have 25, the joint fourth highest in League Two, while Crewe have 16, the joint fifth highest in League One.
The highest in the country are currently Cardiff (135), Chelsea (112), Manchester United (98) and Leeds United (91), while only MK Dons and Burton Albion have no banning orders among clubs in the top four divisions.
Comments