The Football Licensing Authority

Injury Statistics
Last Updated: 19-Mar-2008 5:40 PM

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FOOTBALL LICENSING AUTHORITY

ANALYSIS OF INJURIES TREATED DURING THE 2006/07 FOOTBALL SEASON

1. At the end of each season, we ask all the Premier and Football League clubs and international grounds to provide us with details of the number of spectators treated for injuries at football matches at their grounds. For reasons of patient confidentiality, we do not collect information on individual cases. We very much depend upon the clubs to provide us with accurate returns.

2. Because the football season does not coincide with our financial year, we were unable to analyse the statistics for the 2006/07 season in time for inclusion in our Annual Report. We are therefore publishing this analysis as a separate document. We shall refer back to it in next year’s Annual Report.

3. The statistics relate to football matches at the 92 grounds in the Premier and Football Leagues plus the international grounds in Wembley (from March 2007) and Cardiff. The matches played at Wembley from March 2007 would before then have been played at a variety of grounds, principally but not exclusively the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Accordingly, the figures for the international grounds are presented with those for the Premier League with a view to minimising any distortion of the year on year comparisons.

Summary
4. 2006/07 saw a further substantial fall in the number of spectators seeking treatment for injuries sustained at the ground, in particular in the Premier League and at the international grounds. While this is most encouraging, we are aware (and have observed) that spectators do not always seek treatment.

5. The headline figures are as follows.

For the first time since we began collating responses, fewer than 1,000 spectators were reported as having been treated for injuries sustained at the ground. While the reported overall attendances rose by 1.2% from 36,727,280 to 37,169,813, the reported injuries were down by 19% from 1,191 (one injury per 30,837) in 2005/06 to 964 (one injury per 38,558) in 2006/07.

The number of injured spectators taken to hospital fell even more substantially from 65 in 2005/06 to 42 in 2006/07.

The 964 spectators treated for injuries sustained at the ground were once again significantly outnumbered by the 1,598 treated for illnesses or pre-existing injuries.

Detailed analysis
6. The following table shows the number of spectators reported as having been treated for injuries sustained at football matches at the ground during the 2006/07 season, in total and broken down by division.

	Premier	Championship	League 1	League 2	Total
Spectators treated for injuries of which	474	210	158	122	964
Taken to hospital	18	9	10	5	42
Attendance	18,019,826	11,423,444	4,945,983	2,780,560	37,169,813
1 injury per	38,017	54,397	31,304	22,791	38,558

7. The equivalent figures for 2005/06 were as follows.

	Premier	Championship	League 1	League 2	Total
Spectators treated for injuries of which	629	228	190	144	1,191
Attendance	17,596,520	11,051,156	5,075,480	3,004,124	36,727,280
1 injury per	27,975	48,470	26,713	23,914	30,837

In these tables, the figures for Wembley Stadium (from March 2007) and the Millennium Stadium are included with those for the Premier League.
The attendance figures are those reported by the home club in the national press.

8. The distribution of the reported injuries was consistent both geographically and by type with that in 2005/06. The following table breaks down the injuries by category as described in returns to the FLA. This shows that some two thirds of the injuries were described as trips, cuts, injuries to limbs or contact with seats or turnstiles. Half of the remaining injuries consisted of scalds, mostly from hot drinks. Other smaller groups included spectators hit by the ball, those injured as a result of disorder or celebrations and those who had been stung by insects.

290	Trips	30%	Total 964
265	Cuts	27%
161	Scalds	17%
54	Hit By Ball	6%
53	Hand, arm & Leg stc	6%
41	Seat and Turnstile	4%
29	Disorder	3%
26	Celebration	3%
19	Stings	2%
26	Other	3%

9. The main change was that only 4.4% of these injuries were sufficiently serious to require hospital treatment, as compared with 5.5% the previous year.

10. We are conscious that these broad categories are of somewhat limited value in themselves, especially as there is no obligation on the person reporting for treatment to declare (or be truthful about) the circumstances in which the injury was sustained. These may vary from slippery steps, spilled drinks, loss of balance, inebriation or misbehaviour (by either the injured person or others). In most cases, the incident was minor and the injury could be treated at the ground. Our ability to influence these categories is limited, since we rely on the clubs to pass on information that is collected for other purposes.

11. The tables in paragraphs 6 and 7 show that the fall in reported injuries during 2006/07 was spread across all four divisions, though the greatest fall was in the Premier League and international grounds. Such year on year comparisons should, however, be treated with a degree of caution. New grounds are opened and grounds move between divisions. Factors such as the weather can affect conditions underfoot. In order to reduce the impact of any anomalies or single incidents – which we can investigate individually – and enable us to focus on the underlying trends, we have therefore produced the following three-year rolling averages for all 93 or 94 grounds as a whole and for each division.

2004/05 – 2006/07	Premier	Championship	League 1	League 2	Total
Spectators treated for injuries of which	590	246	194	147	1,177
Taken to hospital	35	13	15	6	69
Attendance	18,013,863	11,352,294	5,187,022	3,097,901	37,651,111
1 injury per	30,532	46,148	26,737	21,074	31,989

2003/04 – 2005/06	Premier	Championship	League 1	League 2	Total
Spectators treated for injuries of which	658	275	219	173	1,325
Taken to hospital	50	20	19	9	97
Attendance	18,145,708	11,175,455	5,318,751	3,435,641	38,076,715
1 injury per	27,577	40,638	24,287	19,859	28,737

2002/03 – 2004/05	Premier	Championship	League 1	League 2	Total
Spectators treated for injuries of which	761	316	242	185	1,505
Taken to hospital	71	33	25	16	144
Attendance	18,321,346	10,826,918	5,201,110	3,433,244	37,782,618
1 injury per	24,075	34,262	21,492	18,558	25,105

12. The use of rolling averages also enables us to examine whether there are significant differences between clubs in different divisions. This is best done over time because promotions and relegations of particular clubs may significantly affect the distribution in any one year. This process has enabled us to ascertain that there is no automatic correlation between the size and condition of a ground or the quality of the safety management arrangements and the division in which a club may find itself during a given season.

13. From these averages, we can discern a continuing fall in both the number and rate of treatments across all four divisions. While some of this may originally have been due to better reporting, there can be no doubt that it has largely been driven by the improvements in spectator accommodation, stewarding and safety management.

14. The Championship has long enjoyed the lowest aggregate injury rate. In part, this may be because grounds in this division are generally less crowded than those in the Premier League. There are no obvious differences between the overall quality of the spectator accommodation, the safety management or the behaviour of spectators between these two divisions.

15. It has been suggested that the willingness of spectators to seek treatment may sometimes be influenced by their age, their self-image, the proximity of the first aid post and whether they are visiting supporters who do not want to miss the coach home. A large ground with a more family oriented crowd and readily accessible first aid facilities may attract a higher number of people with minor injuries.

16. The reported injuries rates in the two lower divisions have also fallen steadily, in particular since the enforcement of strict requirements on standing accommodation in 1999. Nonetheless, League 2 in particular still suffers from a higher injury rate – though the absolute numbers are low. Among the factors at play are likely to be the lesser quality of the accommodation (including the retention of standing terraces) and fewer resources to devote to safety.

17. There is no automatic correlation between standing terraces and the number of spectators seeking treatment for injuries. However, we have compared the level of reported injuries at all-seated grounds in League 1 and League 2 with those at grounds in these Divisions that retain standing terraces. The following table of injuries treated in 2006/07 suggests that, taken as a whole, grounds that retain terraces have slightly higher reported injury rates than those which are all seated.

	League 1 all-seated	League 1 with terracing	League 2 all-seated	League 2 with terracing *
Injuries	105	53	52	70
Attendance	3,692,319	1,253,664	1,465,560	1,315,000
1 injury per	35,165	23,654	28,183	18,786

* These figures relate to injuries throughout the ground. Those occurring in standing areas are not always separately identified in the returns.

Conclusion
18. The further substantial reduction in the number of spectators seeking treatment and in the number taken to hospital during 2006/07 was particularly encouraging. The clubs, under the oversight of the local authorities, are to be commended for what they have achieved. However, we should avoid becoming too closely attached to particular statistics. For the reasons given above, the figures are best regarded as indicative of a positive trend and it is best not to cite them out of context.

19. Moreover, we must be alert to any risk of complacency. While some injuries are almost impossible to prevent – there being limits, for example, to which clubs can control where children stick their fingers – the clubs, and in particular their stewards, must remain vigilant.

Football Licensing Authority
Secretariat

February 2008

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