ONLY a third of reports about racial abuse at football matches in West Yorkshire have resulted in arrests with zero for the same abuse witnessed online, new figures show.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request put to West Yorkshire Police showed 32 per cent of racial abuse crimes recorded at games across the county resulted in arrests over the past four years.

In total there were 22 crimes recorded with just seven arrests between 2018 and 2021 – eight in 2018, eight again in 2019, and three each in 2020 and 2021.

The highest amount of arrests for racial abuse came in 2019, with three people detained, while two were taken into custody in 2018, with just one arrest each in the final two years.

The same FOI revealed there have been no arrest made for six reports of online racial abuse in West Yorkshire over the same period.

The crimes cover racially or religiously aggravated injury, harassment, criminal damage, assault without injury and fear, alarm or distress.

Chief Inspector Rick Sumner of West Yorkshire Police, said: “Racist abuse is utterly abhorrent in any place or location, and as with all forms of hate crime it is one West Yorkshire Police treat very seriously.

“West Yorkshire Police have been working closely with partner police forces and football authorities to raise awareness of Hate Crime in football and support the FA in recording and dealing with incidents.

“An improved reporting process for victims to make reports is being implemented and we aspire to make football inclusive, raise awareness of hate crime and dealing with reports positively.

“We do conduct further enquiries into all hate offences where evidential opportunities exist and also employ specialist Hate Crime Coordinators in ‘gatekeeper’ roles to scrutinise reports and see if possibilities for further enquiries have been missed, and support victims of Hate Crime.

“We absolutely do encourage victims to report hate incidents to us and work closely with Hate Incident Reporting Centres for third party or anonymous reports, encouraging more people to come forward.

“This allows us to understand the impact and true picture within the county, and very much view it as a positive thing that victims feel empowered to come forward and that as a victim focussed organisation, we are recording their experiences accurately.

“The force has also created a Hate Crime Training Package for call handlers and frontline officers to raise awareness and help them identify disability hate crimes and support victims.”