Bryan Drew on football violence

A report by the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) has revealed a rise in the number of arrests at football games.

The NCIS's head of specialist intelligence, Bryan Drew, was on hand to hear your concerns.

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The NCIS's annual report shows 3,391 people were arrested for football-related offences last season - up 8.1% on the previous year.

It concluded that although violence inside stadiums is rare, the problem has shifted to stations, pubs and town centres.

The Football Supporters Association says the findings are misleading, and that the overall trend for football violence is down.

The report has reopened the debate on football hooliganism, and the NCIS's Bryan Drew was poised to answer your questions.

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Craig, England

I don't think football violence is on the increase, it is merely that police are, rightly, tougher and make more arrests. Do you agree?

That may well be the case in terms of the number of people who were arrested and may account for the increase in the number of arrests.

I think what the second part of our assessment showed was that there had been an increase in the number of incidents involving serious disorder and violence taking place away from football grounds last season. This may in itself be part of the reason why people don't see it and don't see it as being football related.

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Paul Edwards, UK

What part has the web and e-mail played in the increase in organised violence around football grounds?

The Internet is a useful tool for organised crime groups across a range of criminal activities including football hooligans.

I think what people need to realise is, is that criminal groups need to look at the environment in which they operate to see what the law enforcement response is and see what opportunities exist for them.

Whether you are talking about a group of criminals involved in drug trafficking or football hooligans, they are going to make use of the latest technology that allows them to communicate effectively and securely with people that they are seeking to contact to make arrangements.

There are a huge number of websites used by decent football supporters. We don't believe and we would never say that groups who are seeking to organise confrontations are going to post their intentions openly on the Internet.

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Frank Schmidt, Germany

Do the clubs do enough themselves to identify troublemakers and ensure penalties are imposed on them such as travel bans, etc?

Surely it is better to put the onus on the clubs and ask them to pay for security staff to be on hand at home games and travel with fans.

I think over the years the clubs have taken on a lot more responsibility for this together with the football association. I think that is one of the reasons why in the football grounds in the Premiership and some of the bigger grounds in the other divisions you now see a lot less trouble taking place inside the actual ground.

The development of all-seater stadium, close-circuit television and more effective use of the stewards are all indications of the involvement of the clubs. Most football clubs now have a fulltime football safety officer.

Clubs are taking more responsibility and we need to keep working together as a range of agencies to combat this problem and reduce it.

The difficult probably comes for the clubs when they say the disorders are taking place some way from the stadium. What they can do in that circumstances is take the police lead and ban the individual from actually entering the ground.

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Matthew Ruble, US

Just what are the penalties for hooliganism? I hear the term 'arrests', but what does it really amount to?

There is a lot of legislation in this country, some of which is football specific and some of which is general legislation. If you were to get arrested for assaulting someone in the street the same penalties would apply as if that had happened during a football match.

There are a whole range of penalties available to the courts, including fines, imprisonment, and probation. The difference is, that if someone is arrested for an offence on his or her way to or from a football match, in addition to dealing with the original offence the court now has the option to ban that person from attending football.

A ban now means that person is banned from attending football both in this country and travelling abroad to watch football.

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Neil Swatman, England

What is the point of Millwall and Man City banning away fans for the corresponding fixtures. Is this really going to stop the hooligans travelling to the games?

This is a slightly more difficult issue. There are powers within the Football Disorder Act that came into effect about a year ago that allows the courts to put some form of territorial restriction or curfew on people they make subject of a ban.

So the powers are there and it's really a case of the police and the courts agreeing that a territorial restriction may be applicable in an individual case.

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Sarah, UK

If you could bring in one piece of law to help combat violence what would it be?

In 1985 the first football specific legislation was introduced that dealt with the carriage of alcohol on trains and coaches specifically used to transport people to football matches.

We've had legislation in effect since 1987 dealing with domestic bans and 1990 dealing with international bans. We have legislation that deals with running on the pitch, racist chanting, indecent chanting and throwing missiles. And now we have the latest legislation that came in last year that now makes someone subject to a ban and prevents him or her from attending a football match for a considerable period of time.

I think we've got a lot of football specific legislation and what we need is a longer period of time to decide if we need to make any further amendments.