Football fans in England and Wales could be banned from matches if they mock tragedies such as the Hillsborough disaster, under updated guidance from the Crown Prosecution Service.
The CPS guidance will state that actions such as singing, chanting or displaying offensive messages about disasters or accidents involving players or fans can be seen as a public order offence.
It has been backed by the chief executives of the Football Association, the Premier League and the English Football League.
The guidance will help prosecutors as they make legal decisions on cases and will set out how lawyers can apply for football banning orders, which can stop supporters attending matches and impose other restrictions, such as on travel to certain areas and during tournaments such as next year’s 2024 European Championship, or being allowed in pubs while games are taking place.
Douglas Mackay from the CPS said: “A small minority of so-called fans are both damaging the reputation of the sport and more importantly this offending has a devastating impact on the families of victims of tragedies and the communities connected closely to these events.”
The guidance would apply to chants about incidents such as the 1958 Munich air crash, which killed eight Manchester United players, the Bradford City fire in 1985, in which 56 fans died, and the death of Emiliano Sala in a plane crash in 2019.
Mark Roberts, the chief constable of Cheshire police and the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s lead for football policing, said the organisation was working closely with the CPS and welcomed the effort to tackle the “mindless and vicious chanting that unfortunately a minority of supporters engage in”.
The Premier League chief executive, Richard Masters, said: “We strongly believe there is no room for abhorrent tragedy abuse in football.
“Along with our clubs and the authorities, we are committed to sanctioning those found guilty and will also focus on educating fans of all ages, so they understand why this abuse is so hurtful and unacceptable.”
There have been several successful prosecutions in recent months after abuse or offensive messages related to disasters.
In June, James White, a Manchester United supporter, was given a four-year football ban after he admitted wearing a shirt at Wembley that made an offensive reference to the Hillsborough disaster.
United issued an indefinite ban to White, 33, preventing him from attending all club activities.
Kieron Darlow, a Tottenham Hotspur supporter, was banned from attending football matches for three years after being found guilty of mocking the Hillsborough disaster.
Darlow, 25, admitted making a gesture towards Liverpool fans during a Premier League match at Anfield in April suggesting that supporters without tickets had been partly to blame for the crush that led to 97 deaths. An inquest jury ruled in 2016 that the victims were unlawfully killed.
In recent years, there has been an increase in chanting and online trolling relating to Hillsborough, which has been described as “banterfication” of the disaster. Louise Brookes, whose brother was killed at Hillsborough, said “hatred of Liverpool fans” was fuelling the abuse.
“How dare these people get away with saying disgusting things about those who died at Hillsborough,” she said. “You then have the survivors who are still traumatised by what happened, so seeing all this stuff online is a real danger to their mental wellbeing.”
