West Ham fans clocked up more football-related arrests than any other club in the country last season – more than three times as many as Sunderland, according to the latest Home Office figures. Hammers fans were arrested 89 times for football-related incidents last season, while Sunderland fans were arrested 30 times for incidents at Black Cats matches.

A total of 27 West Ham arrests were for public disorder, and another 23 were for throwing missiles. The latter figure also means that Hammers fans also ended up with by far the highest numbers of arrests for throwing missiles.

As for Sunderland, their total of 30 arrests means they had the joint 20th-highest number in the country. That figure is up from 21 arrests in 2021-22, but down from 34 in 2018-19, the last full season before the pandemic.

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The majority of Sunderland’s arrests in 2022-23 were for public disorder, with 16 fitting into that category. There were also two for possession of Class A drugs, three for throwing missiles, three for alcohol offences, two for pitch incursions, two for violent disorder, and one for racist chanting.

Two-thirds of the offences involving Sunderland fans took place at the Stadium of Light, and a third away. Both of the arrests for possession of Class A drugs were at away matches.

After West Ham, Manchester United had the second-highest number of arrests with a total of 83. Leeds United were third with 69, followed by Manchester City with 66, Arsenal and Tottenham with 51 apiece, and Burnley with 50.

There were a total of 2,264 football-related arrests in England and Wales last season, up from 2,198 the season before. Last season’s total was the highest since the 2013-14 season when 2,273 arrests were recorded.

However, football matches had a combined attendance of 45.4m people last season according to the Home Office figures, which means the arrest rate equates to a percentage of 0.005 – or five arrests for every 100,000 spectators.

Arrests by season

2010-11 3,089

2011-12 2,363

2012-13 2,456

2013-14 2,273

2014-15 1,873

2015-16 1,895

2016-17 1,638

2017-18 1,542

2018-19 1,381

2019-20 1,089

2020-21 116

2021-22 2,198

2022-23 2,264

Meanwhile, incidents of hate crime at football matches fell last season. A total of 370 hate crimes were reported to police, down from 384 the season before.