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.
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.
5. Turf Moor, Burnley
Turf Moor takes second spot in the North West, and fifth in the UK. There have been 110 football-related crimes, and 8,780 general crimes, within the vicinity of the stadium since the 14/15 season, giving it an index score of 7.36 out of 10. Though they didn’t score the highest for any specific crime, or during any particular season, they did come in the overall top three for criminal damage and arson, and in the top five for burglary over the eight-year period.
Photo: Gareth Copley
6. Molineux, Wolverhampton Wanderers
In the sixth spot, we’re back in the Midlands with Wolves at their Molineux stadium. They just missed the top five, with a crime score of 7.24. They did, however, have the highest overall crime score during the 2015/16 season.
Photo: Laurence Griffiths
7. Stamford Bridge, Chelsea
With an overall score of 7.23, Chelsea's Stamford Bridge comes in at number seven. The Blues came in the top five for criminal damage offenses, ticket touting and burglary. They were also number one for vehicle crime — so lock your car doors if you’re off to see the World and former European champions.
Photo: Eddie Keogh
8. Loftus Road, Queens Park Rangers
QPR's Loftus Road ranks eighth with a score of 6.48. Although their figures are tame compared to some of the other London clubs on our list, The Hoops did find themselves in the top five for antisocial behaviour and drug offences.
Photo: Andrew Redington