New Season, New Suspensions

As the 2025/26 football season draws ever closer, the issue of Football Banning Orders raises its ugly head.

Football Banning Orders traditionally prevent people from attending certain matches; prevent people from entering the stadium or the area surrounding the stadium for a six hour period around the kick off time for any home matches; require people to attend to sign on at a police station during home matches; require people to surrender their passports when the England team are playing abroad; and prevent people from using public transport for periods of time on days where a particular team are playing away from home.

Orders should only be made where a football related offence has been committed. For example, drunkenness in or near to a stadium, the use of forged tickets to attempt to enter a stadium, possession of flares or fireworks near to a stadium or when travelling to or from a game, violent or disorder linked to a particular match, and where there have been social media posts designed to insight violence when the posts are linked to a particular game.

It is, of course, always possible to contest the making of a Football Banning Order. The best starting point is always to be found not guilty of the criminal offence that would give rise to such an Order. Failing that, attempts can be made to show that a particular offence isn’t actually football related - drunkenness near a ground or involvement in violence near a ground may not have anything to do with football at all.

Whatever the circumstances and whether or not an offence has actually been committed, a Court that is being asked to make a Banning Order can always be persuaded that the person in question does not present a risk. The sort of things that may be helpful here are to show that somebody has a limited or non-football related criminal history, where someone has a history to show that they have been rehabilitated, to produce strong character references from reliable sources and to demonstrate a good employment history or strong community ties.

If you are accused of an offence that has anything to do with a football match, it is always worth giving us a call. An application for a Football Banning Order could be made at any point during the case and it is vital that we are ready to head it off.