Domestic violence surges in England after a football match ends: Study

The National Centre for Domestic Violence (NCDV) UK, which provides a free, fast emergency injunction service to survivors of domestic abuse, reported that incidents of domestic violence in England increase during major sporting events.

“Not everyone is looking froward to the match tonight, Instances of domestic abuse increase 26% when England play and 38% if they lose,” the tweet said.

A study in 2014 by academics at Lancaster University looked at the number of reports of abuse to a police force in the north-west of England during three football World Cups. They found that such reports increased by 26 per cent when the national team won or drew, and by 38 per cent when the team lost (other studies suggest abuse is worse when England wins). A new study, published on July 4, goes much further. Ria Ivandic, Tom Kirchmaier and Neus Torres-Blas of the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) have analysed 523,546 domestic-abuse incidents reported to the Greater Manchester Police between 2012 and 2019, alongside detailed information on 780 games played by Manchester City and Manchester United in that period. They have been able to disentangle why intimate partner violence increases after games and to create a timeline of when women are most at risk.

Research from the London School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Performance indicated a match increased the risk of family violence.

The study suggested that although domestic abuse declined during the two-hour period when a game is played, it started to increase afterwards and peaked between 10 and 12 hours later.

Meanwhile, a study released in Australia also found out the link between the major sporting events and domestic violence. The study revealed that domestic violence increased 40.7 per cent in New South Wales on State of Origin game days.

On July 11, England and and Italy faced each other in Euro Cup Final 2020, which was considered as one of the biggest games in the world of sports. Italy defeated England to become champions of Europe again, for the first time since 1968, breaking English hearts in the process at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.