Met secures record number of football banning orders

Last season the Met’s football policing unit secured 197 football banning orders, the largest ever amount in a single season.

As part of these orders the majority of these supporters will surrender their passports to police before the start of the European Championships and will not be able to travel to Germany for the tournament.

Depending on the type of banning order it could mean supporters are excluded from the vicinity of a stadium or town for domestic matches and must surrender their passports for European competitions or international fixtures.

In April alone the Met applied for 79 football banning orders. The bans are imposed to ensure matches in London are safe for other supporters attending and to minimise disorder in local communities during matchday.

The football policing unit secured 52 bans for public order offences which includes eight for tragedy chanting and another eight for racially aggravated public order offences.

The Met is continuing its zero tolerance stance for football fans found in possession of class A drugs and applied 51 three-year banning orders last season for fans found with them.

There were also 28 bans for assault and 48 bans for football related offences including throwing missiles onto a pitch, going onto a pitch and flares.

Chief Inspector Pete Dearden, who leads football policing for the Met, said: “This has been a brilliant effort from the football policing unit to secure the banning orders and prevent serious disorder taking place in our communities on matchday.

“The majority of our officers working on football are fans themselves, we understand the passion but want to make sure matches taking place in the capital are safe spaces for everyone attending.

“We know the Euros is going to be a hugely popular tournament for fans travelling from London to watch England hopefully bring football home. Our dedicated football officers have worked tirelessly with clubs across the capital to secure the bans for fans who cause disorder at domestic matches, to stop them doing the same abroad.”