Police chiefs have expressed concern about a rise in football hooliganism.
The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) also said that the number of young hooligans is going up.
Acpo spokesman Assistant Chief Constable Andy Holt set out his fears less than a week after six arrests were made at a match featuring Brighton and Hove Albion’s opponents today – Bournemouth.
However, by late evening Sussex Police said that no football-related arrests had been made before, during or after Albion’s 1-1 draw with Bournemouth.
And the most recent official figures – published by the Home Office – show that Albion have some of the country’s best behaved fans.
The three main measures are
- the total number of orders banning fans from football grounds
- the number of banning new banning orders imposed
- the numbers of arrests made
Fifteen banning orders were in force for Albion fans on Tuesday 10 November 2009, compared with 162 for Cardiff City fans and 124 for Leeds fans – the two highest totals.
Brighton had the 63rd highest number of banning orders in place out of the 92 Football League and Premiership clubs.
Only one new banning order was imposed in the reporting period which was from Friday 31 October 2008 to Tuesday 10 November 2009.
Brighton shared 77th spot with five other clubs in the table of new banning orders, with ten clubs able to boast that no fans were handed a ban during the year.
And just eight fans were arrested during the 2008-09 season, the most recent for which figures are available.
Two of the arrests were at home games and six at away games.
Six of the arrests were for public disorder, one was for going on the pitch and the other was drink related.
No Brighton fans were arrested for violence, having a weapon or chanting racist abuse.
Out of the 92 League and Premiership clubs, Brighton had the 72nd best record for the number of arrests.
