What’s going on with fan disorder at European games?

Young Boys had just received the lead at Aston Villa thanks to Donyell Malen.

He ran over to the corner flag only to be met by a swarm of supporters who were present, leaving him with a cut to the top of his head.

More objects were thrown as Young Boys fans ripped out seats and clashed with police after the Netherlands forward scored his second goal in Villa’s 2-1 Europa League victory on Thursday night.

On suspicion of assaulting and affraying a police officer, two supporters were taken into custody.

Does this incident represent something more common or is it just an isolated incident?

There are 116 active stadium suspensions across all competitions, including for women’s and youth teams, despite Uefa’s decision to not release historical data. 16 more have already been triggered and are pending delivery.

The lighting of fireworks is the most perilous offense (67), followed by racist or discriminatory behavior (31), throwing objects (25), disturbances in the crowd (12), stadium damage (seven), and other offenses (seven).

Young Boys frequently have issues with Uefa, and only recently did a two-year probation expire, when the threat of a ban on traveling fans was lifted.

What location did that incident occur in? In a Champions League match at Etihad Stadium against Manchester City in November 2023, they previously traveled to England.

For crowd disturbances and causing harm to the stadium, the Swiss club were given a one-game suspension and fined.

Young Boys were placed on probation for another two years after a partial home stadium closure was activated for the lighting of fireworks in February of this year. A new, more severe ground punishment followed, making them eligible for probation.

There has been general concern about declining standards of supporter behavior since Covid’s return to football.

According to Home Office data, there were nine-year highs in the number of arrests at football games in England and Wales in 2023. According to data released earlier this year, disorder increased by another 18% during the 2024-25 season, while the campaign for 2023-24 increased by another 14%.

However, English clubs have not shown this in European football. Fans continue to carry the weight of their former reputation in one of the 132 cases that the Uefa disciplinary body has received.

England came in sixth place with 241 games played in the Uefa’s fair play rankings for the behavior of supporters for the 2024-2020 season. The Faroe Islands, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, and Luxembourg were the only countries with strong supporter bases ahead of them.

Germany was in 18th place, with Spain in 21st, making it the closest country to play more than 150 games.

Before the 2023 Champions League final in Paris, French police’s inability to categorize risk was a contributing factor.

Following their side’s humiliating defeat by Marseille at Stade Velodrome, Newcastle United claim that their supporters were also subject to “indiscriminate assault by the police.”

English fans haven’t caused problems, though. After being hit by a West Ham supporter’s cup in the 2023 Conference League final, Fiorentina captain Cristiano Biraghi was left with a bloody head.

There will be questions about why the club was free to have an allocation at Villa Park but Maccabi Tel Aviv was not, given Young Boys’ history and the fact that the club’s last major offense occurred in Manchester.

Switzerland, which hosted 116 games, is among the worst-behaved in Europe, ranked 44th out of 50 nations. 37th place is Israel.

Due to “violent clashes and hate crime offences” in previous matches, West Midlands Police said, the Israeli club was prohibited from attending this month’s Europa League game. Due to the high potential for visitors to the event, Birmingham Council’s Safety Advisory Group (SAG) decided to block away ticket sales.

The Maccabi game had some unique circumstances, including tensions over the Israel-Gaza conflict and Villa Park’s predominantly Muslim population. 11 people were arrested as a result of protests outside the ground before and during the match.

Birmingham Council said it would not comment on individual cases when BBC Sport inquired as to whether Young Boys were given the same consideration. However, it added that the SAG’s recommendation to the club was unanimous and based on police evaluation, and that the decision to ban Maccabi fans was ultimately final.

It is obvious that Young Boys fans avoided crowd disturbances for the duration of their probation.

Even though they account for a sizable portion of those suspended sentences, small fines for things like racism and discrimination still seem to be insufficient.

Despite this, almost all of the 16 stadium bans are still in place because of racist or discriminatory behavior. That includes Croatia, Georgia, and Romania’s home games that are held secret.

However, Qarabag were fined just €5,000 (£4,379) this week for racist abuse committed by at least one supporter against Chelsea in Azerbaijan on November 5th.