Not a single England fan has been arrested at the World Cup, police confirmed today.
Cheshire Chief Constable Mark Roberts, head of the UK Football Policing Unit, praised the behaviour of Three Lions fans in Qatar. He believes it is the first time ever that no British nationals have been arrested at the tournament. No Wales fans were detained either.
Mr Roberts gave his report following England's knock out in the dramatic 2-1 quarter final defeat to France on Saturday. There were 3,000 fans from each home nation for our three group games in Qatar and 3,500 travelling out to the knockout stages for England games, including the 3-0 victory over Senegal in the last 16.
The good behaviour follows the drink and drug-fuelled shame of the delayed Euro 2020 final last summer. Mr Roberts believes the strict laws on alcohol sales in the Gulf State contributed to zero arrests. The sale of beer at the venues was dropped by the organising committee just two days before the tournament began.
Throughout England and Wales’ participation, 'there were zero police incidents and zero arrests of British nationals'. Mr Roberts, National Police Chiefs' Council Lead for Football Policing, said: “The behaviour of England and Wales out in Qatar was absolutely exemplary.
“Throughout the home nations involvement in the tournament there were no arrests or incidents to report, which is a credit to all those who travelled.
"In Russia 2018 there were three arrests. But obviously having two teams in this tournament we played double the group stage games, including a home nations derby, which underlines the good nature of our fans.
"I would also like to praise all the UK officers who travelled out to Qatar for the work they have done in helping to keep British nationals safe during the past four weeks.
"The atmosphere at all the home nations' games was passionate but friendly, and it would be fantastic to see this replicated at matches back home throughout the rest of the season."
He added: "Traditionally we do have few arrests of our fans at World Cups, but to have zero isn’t something we have seen before.
"It would be wrong to entirely attribute this excellent behaviour to the restrictions on alcohol in Qatar, but I do think it has helped to some degree.”
Domestically there have been a total of 531 football related incidents across the UK since the beginning of the tournament – 150 of which took place on the evening of the England v France match.
This has resulted in 115 football related arrests, a high proportion of which are linked to incidents at licensed premises, which police say 'tends to emphasise the impact of alcohol'. This figure compares to 225 arrests at the same stage during the Russia World Cup four years ago.
Chief Constable Roberts added: “It has also been encouraging to see a reduction in the number of arrests in the UK throughout this World Cup so far.
"Unfortunately we have still seen a number of unsavoury incidents involving people watching football. As we move into the last week of the tournament, I would encourage everyone planning on watching the matches to behave responsibly.”
