Manchester United fans top list of football-related arrests involving racism
Manchester United supporters have been involved in more football-related arrests where racism was an aggravating factor or a feature than any other club in England in the four seasons up to 2017-18, data from the Home Office shows.
Data released under a Freedom of Information request by the Press Association shows that 27 individuals recorded as United fans by police were arrested during the seasons 2014-15 to 2017-18.
Championship clubs Leeds and Millwall each had 15 supporters arrested, while Leicester had 14 and Chelsea 13.
The 2018-19 season in England was marred by a series of racism-related incidents and arrests. Data for the season just ended is set to be released later this summer.
Where racism has been recorded as a feature of an incident, it requires the arresting officer to tick a box, which is why the Home Office says the overall accuracy of the data cannot be guaranteed.
Manchester United pointed to the fact their large attendances meant the percentage of their supporters involved was miniscule.
A club spokesperson said: „There is no place for racism within our game, or in society as a whole, and we are committed to working to make football free from all forms of discrimination, whether through our own ‘All Red All Equal’ campaign or in support of Kick It Out and other organisations.
„This statistic applies to 0.0004 per cent of our match-going fanbase. It does not reflect the views or behaviour of our fans as a whole in any way. We continue with monitoring and liaison with authorities to try and identify and eradicate any forms of discriminatory behaviour, and we take appropriate action if it occurs.“
It is understood there are 69,000 home fans among the 72,000 supporters for each match at Old Trafford, with a minimum of 3,000 United fans at every away game.
The club first developed the #allredallequal campaign, against all forms of discrimination, during the 2016-17 season.
United also have a ‘virtual steward’ text message process to allow fans to report issues like racist abuse.
The data shows an overall total of 107 arrests where racism was recorded as a feature during the 2014-15 season, rising to 114 in 2015-16. The figure then dropped over the next two seasons, with 94 arrests recorded in 2016-17 and just 75 in 2017-18.
Leeds, in response to the statistics, said in a statement to Sky Sports News: „Racism will not be tolerated by our club or by the vast majority of our community and fan base.
„We believe that we have made great steps towards making improvements – however clearly this is a work in progress and we are committed with the help of The FA, EFL, Kick It Out and Police to do anything we can to eradicate this vile issue from the game.“
Other clubs with arrests in double figures are West Ham (11), with Barnsley, Manchester City, Middlesbrough and Sunderland all on 10.
In 2018-19 England forward Raheem Sterling alleged he was racially abused during a match for his club Manchester City at Chelsea. The Crown Prosecution Service announced in April that there was insufficient evidence that the words used by a Chelsea fan were racially aggravated.
England’s black players suffered abuse during a Euro 2020 qualifier away to Montenegro in March, while a Tottenham supporter was handed a four-year football ban and a £500 fine for throwing a banana skin towards Arsenal forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in December last year.
Anti-discrimination body Kick It Out reported last November that there were 520 reports of discriminatory abuse during the 2017-18 season, an 11 per cent increase on the previous campaign and the sixth year in a row where the figure had risen.
Fifty-three per cent of those reports concerned alleged racist abuse.
In response to the Home Office data concerning arrests, a statement from Kick It Out read: „These figures show racism is a nationwide problem shared by clubs of all different sizes in all parts of the country.
„We support them in challenging racism and other forms of discrimination, and will continue our programme of education in the game to help reduce this problem.“
Soccer Accumulator Bonus
Our fantastic Euro Soccer accumulator offer gives you the chance to earn a bonus of up to 100% on accumulators on the top domestic leagues in Europe along with the group and knockout stages of the Champions League.
This offer applies to returns on pre-match accumulators of 3 or more selections on Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for the English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga 1 or UEFA Champions League.
The maximum bonus that you can receive is ˆ100,000 or currency equivalent. The bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based .on the remaining active stake. If a qualifying bet is edited .using our Edit Bet feature. The bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply. Double Chance bets or combination bets with bonuses. Such as Lucky 15’s or Lucky .31’s do not apply for this offer.
If your bet is successful, we will add the following bonuses to your returns:
Bet Type Bonus
14-folds and upwards 100% bonus
Terms and Conditions
Applies to straight pre-match accumulator bets on the Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for UEFA Champions League, English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga .1 or Australian A-League matches. Maximum bonus ˆ100,000 or currency equivalent. Soccer Accumulator Bonus does not apply to Double Chance bets or combination. bets with bonuses such as Lucky 15’s, Lucky 31’s etc.
If any selections are postponed/void then the bonus will still apply, but the percentage bonus added will reflect the actual number of winning selections. For example, an 8-fold accumulator with 7. winners and 1 postponed match will receive a 30% .bonus to returns.
The bonus part of your returns will be added to your account within 24 hours of your final selection having played.
This bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based on the remaining active stake.
If a qualifying bet is edited using our Edit Bet feature, the bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply.
Where any term of the offer or promotion is breached or there is any evidence of a series of bets placed by a customer or group of customers, which due to a deposit bonus, enhanced payments, free bets, risk free bets or any other promotional offer results in guaranteed customer profits irrespective of the outcome, whether individually or as part of a group, bet365 reserves the right to reclaim the bonus element of such offers and in their absolute discretion either settle bets at the correct odds, void the free and risk free. bets or void any bet funded by the deposit bonus.
In addition bet365 .reserve the right to levy an administration charge on the customer up to the value of the deposit bonus, free bet, risk free bet or additional payment to cover administrative costs. We further reserve the right to ask any customer to provide sufficient documentation for us to be satisfied in our absolute discretion as to the customer’s identity prior to us crediting any bonus, free bet, risk free bet or offer to their account.
All bet365 offers are intended for recreational players and bet365 may in its sole discretion limit the eligibility of customers to participate in all or part of any promotion.
.
