Football Banning Orders
What they are | When they are imposed | How they have helped
What they are
Football banning orders demonstrate to the international
community that the UK is taking responsibility for preventing
the export of its domestic hooligan problem.
The orders are civil and preventative rather than a
penalty for past misbehaviour. Their purpose is to prevent
known football hooligans from causing further trouble
at home and abroad. Bans last between 2 and 10 years,
and the precise conditions can be tailored on a case-by-case
basis.
If necessary, the courts can ban recipients from using
public transport on match days, and from visiting other
potential ‘hotspots’, such as town centres,
pubs and bars during risk periods.
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When they are imposed
There are three routes for asking the courts to impose
a football banning order:
- When the police have evidence that an individual
has previously caused or been involved in violence
or disorder and continues to pose a threat they can
ask a magistrate’s court to impose a football
banning order on the basis of an array of evidence
(e.g. video recordings gathered at home or abroad,
overseas convictions for violence or disorder, police
intelligence reports, etc).
- When someone has been convicted of a football related
offence (that can be almost any criminal offence connected
with football, committed in any location, 24 hours
either side of a match), the law requires that the
court imposes a banning order if it is satisfied that
an order will help to prevent further football-related
violence or disorder.
- During a control period – which starts five
days before an overseas match or tournament and lasts
until the event has finished – the police can
intercept and prevent from travelling an individual
(not already subject to a banning order) when they
have evidence that the person has previously been
involved in violence or disorder and grounds for suspecting
that the individual continues to pose a risk. Any
individual so intercepted must face banning order
court proceedings within 24 hours.
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How they have helped
Banning orders have proved a highly successful initiative.
As of February 2004, there are over 2,000 banning orders in place, and this number continues to rise.
In the dark days of Euro 2000, fewer than 100 known troublemakers could be prevented from travelling.
Each banning order prevents the subject from attending
domestic matches. They must also attend a designated
police station and surrender their passport when a control
period starts and collect it only when the match of
tournament is over.
Breach of a banning order is a criminal offence that,
on conviction, carries a penalty of up to 6 months imprisonment
and/or a £5,000 fine.
For more information, please see Home
Office Circular 34/2000.
For statistics on football-related arrests and banning
orders, see 'Publications'.
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