If official statistics are anything to go by, the behaviour of Leeds United fans has improved over the last couple of seasons. Figures released by the Home Office today show a reduction in the number of times our fans have been arrested and banned from going to matches.
In 2014/15, there were 80 arrests among Leeds supporters for alleged football related offences, which put us second only to Manchester United, who managed to achieve 82 arrests in the same season. But last season this figure fell to a mere 39, which saw us drop to eighth place in the national table.
And we’re also dropping off the pace when it comes to banning orders. In 2017/18 there were 18 new banning orders issued to Leeds fans last season, which means there are now 28 individuals subject to banning orders that are currently in effect. There are now 21 clubs with a higher number of fans currently banned, and it’s no surprise that list includes Millwall, with 45.
Sunderland were the Championship club with the most new banning orders last season, which might be a reflection of how it went for them, as the Black Cats sank to a second successive relegation. Either their fans were provoked into anger by their bad form, or they were desperate to be banned so that they wouldn’t have to go to watch them any more.
The reduction in the number of Leeds fans getting into trouble is part of a national trend, as the number of both arrests and banning orders has fallen to roughly half the levels we saw at the start of the decade. Last season there were 1,542 arrests and 1,822 active banning orders, compared to figures of 3,089 and 3,174 respectively in 2010/11.
And if we’re dropping down the ‘league of shame’, the behaviour of our fans must be improving even faster than that of the supporters of most other clubs. But we all know that the problem hasn’t been stamped out entirely, and two recent court cases resulted from trouble during and after our game at Middlesbrough at the start of March.
Three fans received banning orders as a result of incidents during the game, one of whom threw a flare onto the pitch. And another was fined £1,000 for stamping on a policeman’s back after he and a group of his mates were thrown off their train home for misbehaving. Supposedly they were drunk and high on drugs.
So we’re not yet ‘the best behaved supporters in the land’, despite the old song, and the throwing of flares is a continuing problem. Maybe the general improvement in our results in the last couple of seasons has contributed to the better behaviour, but that Boro game shows we can still be ‘a right set of bastards when we lose’. That was a 3-0 defeat, which ended any realistic hope of making the play-offs.
But we’re obviously moving in the right direction, so let’s hope it continues, as long as we continue to back the team in the proper manner. MOT!