"Judge us on our behaviour, not on out-of-date perceptions." That's the message Chief Constable Mark Roberts is taking to law enforcement agencies in Canada, the United States, and Mexico ahead of this summer's World Cup — and the arrest numbers back him up.
Roberts heads the UK Football Policing Unit, and he spent Thursday's London press conference making a case that most football fans already know: the drunken hooligan image of English supporters is decades out of date. Zero England fans were arrested in Qatar. Fewer than 10 were held in Russia. Fewer than 10 in South Africa. Brazil was the worst of the recent lot — 24 arrests — and most of those were ticket touts.
That's across four tournaments, with up to 14,000 England fans travelling to each one. The numbers are hard to argue with.
The real policing challenge isn't abroad — it's at home
The irony is that England fans abroad are considerably easier to manage than England fans watching in pubs back in the UK, where several hundred arrests typically occur during a World Cup. The 2026 tournament adds a new wrinkle: many kickoff times will fall late at night in Britain, meaning fans will be drinking longer before, during, and after matches.
The UKFPU's other job before each tournament is managing football banning orders — court-imposed restrictions that can last up to 10 years and require offenders to surrender their passports when England plays abroad. There are currently 2,471 people on that list, around 2,000 of whom hold passports. Nearly all have complied.
Budget cuts are leaving the unit short-staffed in the US
Roberts had hoped to send around 10 officers to matches in the United States. He's sending three. The US declined to fund UKFPU officers — unlike most host nations, who cover accommodation, food, and travel costs as standard — and a 10% Home Office budget cut has done the rest of the damage. The Boston Police Department has offered to house the British officers in their police academy, which at least keeps costs down.
A couple of Police Scotland officers will also be present for Scotland's group stage games in the US. England and Scotland could both see up to 15,000 and 10,000 travelling supporters respectively, with England potentially playing elimination round matches in Toronto.
- Zero England arrests in Qatar
- Fewer than 10 arrests in Russia and South Africa each
- 24 arrests in Brazil, mostly for ticket touting
- 2,471 people currently under football banning orders in the UK
- UKFPU sending just 3 officers to the US due to funding shortfall
Roberts also flagged something that cuts both ways: British fans need to understand that behaviour tolerated in a UK pub might not fly in an American stadium. Meanwhile, US officers need to understand that a loud, singing, beer-in-hand England fan is not a threat — "it's not in any way a precursor to disorder," as Roberts put it.
The Football Supporters' Association has set up an England Fans' Embassy to help with logistics on the ground. Most fans, the FSA says, are focused on ticket prices and travel costs — not immigration enforcement, despite some civil liberties groups raising concerns about ICE presence at US venues.
"It's not something that's been raised with us by travelling fans," said FSA England lead Thomas Concannon. Expensive flights and eye-watering ticket prices are the real headache. The hooliganism worries, at this point, are mostly someone else's anxiety.
