Assaults on football match officials 306/2026

FOI Reference: 306/2026

Request:

I would like to make an application under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for the following information:

I request data regarding incidents of violence and physical assault related to football matches (both grassroots/amateur and professional) within your jurisdiction for the years 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

1. Assaults on Match Officials

Please provide the number of recorded crimes for 'Assault with Injury' and 'Assault without Injury'  where the words "referee", "linesman", or "match official" appear in the Investigation Summary field.

1b. For all identified incidents, please provide:

• The year of the incident.
• The specific offence (e.g., ABH, GBH, Common Assault).
• The outcome (e.g., Charge, Caution, Community Resolution, or No Further Action).

Response:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, the details of which are as follows:

• For the period covering 2021 – 2025 there were a total of zero (0) assaults on football match officials i.e. assault with injury and assault without injury offences where the words "referee", "linesman", or "match official" appear in the Investigation Summary field in the context of a football match.

Please note: In respect of the above response, records may have been missed as these key words may not be in the summary of all offences relating to assaults on football match officials. A more accurate search could be conducted by searching for “football” and /or “football match” in the summary of all Violence against the Person offences and then manually reviewing the record to identify whether the victim was a "referee", "linesman", or "match official".

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 24/03/2026)