And that could be a cause for concern for Lancashire Police and Greater Manchester Police forces ahead of the new season.
That's because Turf Moor, Ewood Park, Bloomfield Road and the DW Stadium attract some of the highest crime rates in the North West.
The homes of two of those aforementioned Championship rivals also feature in a list of the top FIVE stadiums with the most reported crimes in England.
Curious to find out which stadiums experience the most football related crime, Odds-Comparison.com used crime data statistics to create an index of English clubs and stadiums that have experienced the most football-related crimes in the vicinity of their stadium from the 2014-15 season.
From abhorrent racist and anti-Semitic chants and gestures to drunken behaviour, football fights and even missile throwing, it’s fair to say that, sometimes, football fans don't do themselves any favours!
That’s why the footie mad team at Odds Comparison have created the ultimate guide to the football stadiums where the most football-related crimes occur.
To create the score for the footie stadiums with the most crime, data experts looked at crimes committed within different English stadiums over the past eight years. Considering the capacity of the stadiums too, analysts were then able to create a crime score out of 10.
Odds-Comparison.com wanted to find which football stadium experiences the most crime. This was done by using two sources of crime statistics. First was using the “Football related crimes” dataset published on gov.uk, which featured crimes from 2014-15 to 2020-21. The other set of data was general crime data by location coordinate, published on data.police.
By taking general crime data from 2014-15 to 2020-21, the coordinates of stadiums in the UK were used to find a 500-meter radius around each stadium. Every crime that fell within this radius was counted, to obtain crimes that occurred in the general vicinity of the stadium.
These counts of crimes by year were then calculated per capita (per 10,000 people) based on the capacity of each stadium (e.g., number of crimes / capacity * 10,000). This weights the data so it accounts for larger stadiums.
Finally, percentranks were calculated for each year, with a final average score being taken from these values.
Of the 92 clubs in the English pyramid, let’s see who the 10 worst offenders were, according to the study.
1. Fratton Park, Portsmouth
The English football stadium with the most crime, with a score of 7.87 out of 10, is Portsmouth’s Fratton Park. Portsmouth’s most common crime was antisocial behaviour, with 1,454 instances over the past eight years. According to Crimestoppers, antisocial behaviour means stuff like shouting, swearing and fighting, as well as vandalism, abusive behaviour and harassment. However, there were zero recorded instances of ticket touting or possession of offensive weapons since 2014-15.
Photo: Warren Little
2. The Den, Millwall
Coming in at number two is The Den, home of the formidable Millwall Football Club, based in South East London. They have a score of 7.53 out of 10, and have a pretty high score when it comes to violent disorder, with 69 instances in the past eight years. They also came out as having the highest instance of crime overall during the 2015/2016 season. In terms of violent disorder offenses, The Den comes second only to Birmingham City’s stadium, which has a pretty scary figure of 91!
Photo: James Chance
3. Bloomfield Road, Blackpool
Bloomfield Road is the highest ranking stadium in the North West of England with an index score of 7.51 out of 10. There were 62 football-related crimes reported since the 14/15 season, as well as 13,028 general crimes within the vicinity of the stadium. Overall, the Seasiders had the most offenses for criminal damage and arson, with 1,233 instances over the past eight years, though they didn’t have any recorded instances of possession of weapons or ticket touting during the whole eight-year span.
Photo: Lewis Storey
4. St Andrews, Birmingham City
St Andrews, based in the Midlands, is next up with an index rating of 7.38. Although not in the top three overall, Birmingham City did have the most crimes committed in the 2016/17 season, the 2017/18 season, and the 2019/20 season. They also come top overall in missile throwing and public disorder.
Photo: Matthew Lewis