Football and domestic abuse

[menopausequeen]

In light of the following

Olivia Rose CPS National Stalking Lead said:“While the World Cup is a cause for celebration for many, we know it can also be a time of increased risk for victims of domestic abuse. Prosecutors tell us they see a rise in domestic abuse incidents around major football tournaments, and we are deeply concerned by the patterns we see.”

Why do British football clubs not take a stance on this. For example ban anyone with a conviction for domestic abuse in the last 5 years from purchasing tickets. I realise people still watch it at home on TV but it is sending out a message to perpetrators.

But maybe it just wouldn’t work?
AIBU and this is a rubbish idea
or I’m not and it should be explored as part of a package of measures to target domestic abuse.

How would they check though, do a background check on anyone who applied for a ticket? How would that prevent an abuser from buying a ticket from a 3rd party seller or from a mate?

How could they implement that?

I went to school with a guy who has banned form every football stadium in the country plus travelling for games (hooligan) and he still manages to slip into some 😭

this is a worldwide problem, it’s not unique to English/ Scottish/ British football. It happens everywhere

I mean, it’s a nice idea in theory but not practicable like pp said.

There's a pub in my road and most of the men seemed out of it before kick off, I would hate to be married to them.

I said this recently on another thread that there is a huge increase in domestic violence in New Zealand if the All Blacks lose a match. However in recent years New Zealand Rugby have initiated programmes to help victims.

I think there is something to be said for football clubs at least advocating for checking your own behaviour/ maybe putting up posters about domestic abuse saying this could be your mother or sister or something to that effect. Just something to make perpetrators or potential perpetrators think

You also need to remember that most domestic abuse victims never get justice as the police just can't be bothered and just say lack of evidence.
Without convictions and police support gor all it's a never ending spiral.

This. I don’t think you can police who attends games but the clubs could absolutely be vocal about how there shoukd be zero tolerance for domestic violence

It’s probably not practical but I like your thinking.
Maybe football clubs could have a positive influence on these horrid men, it would be worth them trying something for sure.

That’s really interesting . What have they done?

So I guess it would take a lot of new process to implement but the police do manage to stop certain fans from travelling to matches https://share.google/MyNQ68t1R4zPnaoKh

I work in child protection. Football (and sunshine) = increase in referrals. We used to always get an email before the world cup/euros reminding us years ago. I think it is just pretty much a given now

If they can do it for football violence why can’t they do it for domestic abuse?

Part of the problem is that any thing that the football clubs did would just be lip service as they would have to start with the players themselves.

Enforcement of the banning orders usually relies on passport control. It's not unusual for fans with banning orders to actually get out of the country, only to arrive at the destination, be refused entry, and get escorted back to the UK by British police.

The Government and FA went through all this years back when hooliganism was a massive problem in the 70s and 80s. They introduced football ID cards, mandatory checks on turnstiles, penned fans in like animals, dug moats around pitches, all sorts. It didn't prevent hooligans attending matches, it didn't stop them fighting in the street, it didn't prevent them embarrassing themselves abroad.

Given that Argentina has a program since 2025 where non payment of child support = not allowed to go to football matches please can we accept that this is yet another one of those things where the UK says "impossible" "how would we implement such a thing" "logistics are too complicated" plus a load of other excuses meanwhile far poorer countries just get on with it.
https://www.mundodeportivo.com/futbol/mundial/20260613/1004194705/argentina.html

If they wanted to ban domestic abusers from football stadiums, they could. If they wanted to put air conditioning in your schools and public buildings, they could. If they wanted to implement policies that would be actually helpful to promote gender equality (public nursery, paternity leave of the same amount of time of maternity leave with a mandatory 6 weeks period after the birth, insisting that all political parties as 50% female, insisting that all companies over 250 employees have 50% female board members), they could. If they wanted a decent health service, they could have one.

The UK has the economic capacity to build these structures into its society. But, the men in power....don't want to. So they say it's impossible

Interesting to wonder how so many other countries manage to implement these social measures, all the time. But the UK.....just CAN'T. 🙄

The problem in implementing anything like this is that across the UK a large proportion of league football matches are not actually ticketed. It's turn up on the day and pay at the gate, no ID required. The advent of online sales and e-ticketing also means that there is no physical address involved either, so all you need is a spurious "a.n. other" pseudonym and some form of electronic payment.

If you want to make all organised league matches all ticket, then someone is going to have to pony up the money for the tiny, broke clubs without the infrastructure to do this, and underwrite the cost of administering a tickets-only policy for games in which only a few hundred people ever turn up.

If it doesn’t make money they won’t do it. Capitalism, everything is for profit.

How do you know this is effective in Argentina?

Whilst most football clubs really are shit at doing anything to improve the community or standard of the fans lives, I also think a big barrier is football fans, particularly violent ones, aren’t really that bothered what their clubs think of them. In the hooligans days clubs were begging them to stop, tried everything.

I thought, possibly naively, that it was fans watching on TV rather than those at the actual games.

It is, and at pubs etc. only a small number of them will regularly attend games

Imagine how effective it could be if Tommy Robinson and his Raise The Colours crew did sims marching against domestic abuse related to foorball tournaments. What with them all bring about “protection our women and girls” and all that.
Id love to see the Venn diagram of TR / RTC supporters/ marchers - football fans and DA perpetrators.

How on earth would it work? Football bnning orders are a specific punishment handed out by magistrates. The only way to tie domestic violence convictions to watching football would be for every DV offender to receive a football banning order too. Bearing in mind the prevalence of DV, how would that be policed and enacted by clubs?

Many offenders don't go to football matches anyway. They may watch on TV, they may watch rugby, they may not watch any sport. It's alcohol consumption that has the most significant association with DV.

I think you're looking at this completely the wrong way round. Work needs to be done to prevent domestic violence, starting in childhood. That's what will improve women's lives, not banning offenders from watching sport.

What do you mean "how do I know it's effective"? It is a policy that they have. Fans have to scan their ID before they go into the match and if they have a case against them for unpaid child support they are sent packing. Perhaps the odd one slips through the net but regardless, it sends a message - non payment of child support can and will have consequences you ACTUALLY care about.