1.47 The impacts of legislation and policing on football crowd violence: A longitudinal cross national comparative study

Academic team: Jonas Weber (University of Bern), Clifford Stott (CPRL, OU), Alain Brechbühl (University of Bern), Mike Hope (CPRL, OU)
Policing partners: Metropolitan Police Service, Staffordshire Police, Avon and Somerset Police and West Midlands Police
Status: In progress

The project uses a comparative, multi‑method design in the UK and Switzerland to examine how policing practices, fan behaviour, and legal frameworks interact in domestic football settings. Ethnography forms the core of the approach, enabling direct observation of police, fans, and other stakeholders, while interviews, vignettes, and normative analysis help test emerging theories about legitimacy, law, and fan culture. Practitioners are embedded throughout the research, allowing real‑time evaluation of how policing strategies and legislation shape conflict dynamics.

Running through four interconnected work packages, the project explores policing (WP1), fan perspectives (WP2), and legal aspects (WP3), alongside coordinated management and dissemination activities (WP4). A key feature is international exchange, providing opportunities for Swiss and British police forces to observe practices in each other’s contexts, ultimately supporting evidence‑led approaches to football policing across Europe.

News

Welcome Clifford as our new policing professor

Our new Professor of Policing and Research, whose role includes becoming Academic Director of our Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL), is Clifford Stott MBE.


As the Centre’s lead, a significant part of his role will be working with academics across and beyond the Faculty, as well as CPRL’s police force partners, to generate research and learning relevant to theory, policy and practice.

2nd March 2026
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