No England or Wales Fans Arrested at World Cup For the First Time

England and Wales fans have been praised for their “exemplary behaviour” after emerging for the first time from a World Cup without a single arrest.

While the UK Football Policing Unit (UKFPU) said there had been 531 football-related incidents domestically — with 115 arrests — there had been no incidents in Qatar despite the involvement of fans from two countries.

Mark Roberts, the chief constable for Cheshire police and the head of the UKFPU, again took the opportunity to cite the benefits of a tournament where access to alcohol was limited. As first revealed by The Times, a ban on stadium beer sales was imposed only two days before the start of this World Cup.

As reported by the BBC, British police officers were deployed to the country to act as “cultural interpreters” between fans and local law enforcement.

The head of UK football policing, Chief Constable Mark Roberts, praised fans in Qatar for their “exemplary behaviour”.

However, there have been 531 football-related incidents in the UK.

Of those, 150 took place on Saturday night, when England lost to France in the quarter-finals.
In total, 115 arrests have been made since the start of the tournament, a high proportion of which are linked to incidents at licenced premises.

By the same stage of the World Cup in Russia in 2018, 225 football-related arrests had been made in the UK.

Roberts said the restrictions on alcohol in Qatar helped with fans’ behaviour “to some degree”.
“The behaviour of England and Wales out in Qatar was absolutely exemplary,” he said.

“In Russia 2014 there were three arrests but, 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.”