Interactive map shows London club with highest number of fans arrested for drugs, as Premier League manager criticizes football’s increasing issue

Football-related arrests increased once again last season. Drug use in stadiums appears to be on the rise, with one ground in England’s capital leading the way in this troubling trend.

Football has the power to evoke strong emotions, from Sunday League matches to the elite level of the Premier League. However, the sport is now facing a concerning increase in violence fueled by drug use at stadiums.

While football has given us iconic sporting and cultural moments, it has also been plagued by hooliganism and violence. The game is currently grappling with a rise in drug-related incidents, painting a darker picture of the ‘beautiful game’.

Metropolitan Police’s Football Unit works at 17 stadiums across the National League, the EFL and the Premier League as well as the national ground Wembley Stadium.       

Using statistics from the force and attendance records across the 2023/24 season, the MailOnline can reveal that the ground with the highest drug-related arrest rate per fan, either home or away, was at the Brentford Community Stadium.

One in every 8327 people attending a game at Brentford were arrested for drug-related offences putting the west-London stadium top of the list. 

There were 66 arrests at the stadium across the season which included 43 drug-related offences. Out of the 66 arrests only six were recorded as Brentford fans.

A spokesperson for the club highlighted the ‘growing problem of drug possession among football fans across the country’ and said they are ‘unashamedly working hard to ensure it doesn’t become an issue’ at their stadium by employing a ‘zero-tolerance policy on drugs’.

‘More than half of the arrests made here during the 2023/24 season were for drug possession, with the overwhelming majority involving visiting supporters,’ the spokesperson added. 

The Valley (Charlton) had the second highest rate with one in 15,150 arrested. One in 16,787 fans ended up in handcuffs while attending a game at Craven Cottage (Fulham) leaving it third on the list.

Placed fourth is Loftus Road (QPR) with one in 21,213 arrested for drug-related offences. The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is next on the list with one in 21,493 arrested.    

Despite being fifth on the list, the north London ground saw the highest number of drug-related arrests made with 60 being made. 

This was followed by The London Stadium (West Ham) with 57 arrests. Brentford Community College had 43 rug-related arrests among fans throughout the season.

At Craven Cottage there were 33 arrests related to drugs, while 31 were made at Stamford Bridge (Chelsea), 21 at The Valley, 19 at Loftus Road and 17 at Selhurst Park (Crystal Palace) and Wembley Stadium.

The Brentford Community Stadium also topped the overall list as one in every 5426 people attending a game arrested, while the national stadium Wembley followed closely with one in every 5841 ending up in handcuffs.

Stamford Bridge ranked third with one in 7244 fans attending a game at Chelsea’s stadium being arrested. The Den (Millwall) ranked fourth with one in 7319 arrested and The Valley fifth with one in 7399 arrested.

The stadiums where the most arrests took place during the season was Wembley with 254, the London Stadium with 148 and Stamford Bridge with 164.

In terms of drink-related arrests, there were 21 arrest made at Stamford Bridge, 14 at the London Stadium, 12 at the Emirates (Arsenal), 10 at the Tottenham Stadium and Loftus Road and 7 at Brisbane Road (Leyton Orient), Plough Lane (AFC Wimbledon) and The Valley.  

Stamford Bridge had the most hate-related arrests with 53. This included 39 arrests made for ‘rentboy’ chanting.

The London Stadium saw 25 arrests that were hate-related while 13 were made at Wembley, 10 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, seven at Brentford Community Stadium and five at the Emirates.   

According to the data, the capital’s ‘most dangerous’ ground in the Championship is The Den with one person arrested in every 7319 person who attends a game.

Top of the list in League One is The Valley with one arrested in every 7399 fan. And in League Two it’s Plough Lane with one arrested in 9972. 

The National League ground that saw the most arrests per attendee was The Hive (Barnet), which came sixth overall on the list, with one arrest in every 8226 ticket holder. 

In terms of the the ‘safest’ grounds in London, the home of Wealdstone is your best bet with no arrests being made at Grosvenor Vale. 

Closely following is Dagenham & Redbridge’s stadium Victioria Road and Sutton United’s ground Gander Green Lane where only two arrests were made at each of the venues all season. While three people were arrested at Bromley’s Hayles Lane Stadium.

Overall there were 1114 arrests at stadiums across London with 454 recorded being made inside the grounds and 503 outside. The remaining 157 arrests had no record of being inside or outside the stadium. 

The Champions League Final at Wembley on June 1, 2024, saw the most arrests for a single game as 56 arrests were made as Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund descended on the capital. 

Prior to kick-off fans could be seen charging towards the iconic stadium and attempting to enter via the ‘Club Wembley’ entrance, before being pushed back and turned away by police and security. 

A series of pitch invaders also ran across the turf unchallenged in the early minutes of the match, forcing a halt in play. One of the people who ran on to the pitch stopped to take a selfie with Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior.

It came despite a £5million ring of steel defence which was put in place to avoid a repeat of England’s Euro 2020 day of shame. 

And it was a second Wembley fixture that came next on the list for the most fans arrested in a single game with 43 being made as Manchester United and Manchester City travelled to London on May 24, 2024, to compete for the FA Cup.

Another derby fixture was third in the list as 35 fans were arrested when Arsenal hosted their bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates on September 24, 2023.

Superintendent Gerry Parker, the Met’s lead for policing football in London, said each club in London is ‘unique’ with a dedicated football liaison officer assigned to each of them. 

He said: ‘The policing operation around football matches is challenging with thousands of supporters moving across London on any given day, to and from various stadiums and transport hubs in the capital. 

‘People should be able to go to games, enjoy the match and come home safely and where any criminality is identified, those responsible will be arrested and we will work with clubs to ensure information is shared and acted upon where required.’

Home Office figures revealed that across the whole of England and Wales, a total of 2,584 football-related arrests were made during the 2023/24 season. It was a 14 per cent increase from the previous year when 2,264 arrests were made.

The increase has been attributed to a growing number of arrests for possession of class A drugs, which were up by 144 on the previous year. 

A further 180 arrests were made in England and Wales in relation to Euro 2024. In total, 417 football-related arrests were made at or in connection to national team matches. Of the 291 arrests in England and Wales, 281 related to Euro 2024.

The Home Office added that 126 arrests had been made in Germany during the tournament. 

A total of 2,172 football banning orders were in force, as of August 1, 2024, representing a 21 per cent increase from the previous year.

This followed 825 new banning orders being issued during the 2023/24 season. The figure is the highest number within a season since 2010/11 – when 960 banning orders were issued.

Men are responsible for 99.4 per cent of banning orders, accounting for 2,159. Around 68 per cent, 1,480 of people subject to orders were aged between 18 and 34.

West Ham supporters had the highest number of football banning orders in force with 93 – the first time the club have ranked top – followed by Manchester United with 89 and Millwall with 82.

Everton and Leicester completed the top five with 72.

West Ham fans also ranked highest for football-related arrests for the third consecutive year, with 103 in 2023/24.

The Premier League club highlighted proactive policing at the London Stadium and playing European football in recent seasons as contributing factors, adding it has robust systems and procedures in place on match days.

A zero-tolerance approach to discrimination from home and away supporters was also noted, with the club adding it works with relevant authorities to re-educate fans who have committed offences. 

The club also welcomed the Metropolitan Police’s Violence Against Women and Girls Unit to deliver additional training to staff on matchdays to encourage reporting of incidents. 

The Home Office also reported a sizeable increase in record incidents of online hate crime, rising to 423 from 234 the previous season.

A total of 317 of the cases were linked to the men’s domestic season and five to women’s football, while 101 were linked to England internationals.

The Home Office stated the increase is likely due to improved reporting rather than an increase in the number of online hate crime incidents.

One expert told MailOnline that a ‘lockdown generation’ of young thugs is fuelling a rise in football hooliganism across the UK.

Geoff Pearson, a professor of law at the University of Manchester and one of the UK’s foremost authorities on football hooliganism, said some of the trouble can be traced back to lockdown.

He said boys attending games for the first time usually go with relatives or older friends, who help set the boundaries of acceptable behaviour before they go alone with peers of a similar age when they are more mature.

But Dr Pearson said lockdown had stripped out this crucial formative step for a generation of youngsters.

‘If you think of how fan communities work when you don’t have lockdowns, young fans go with family members, who at points will make interventions and draw the line about what is acceptable,’ he told MailOnline.

‘During lockdown these young fans were set at home. So you had a sudden rush of young, new fans rushing into stadiums at the same time.

‘Good policing relies on officers knowing fans, particular away fans, which did not happen over lockdown.

‘We also lost a lot of experienced police and security officials. I suspect we’re still putting some of that back together.’