The Football Banning Order was the first Civil Preventive Order (CPO), predating the many similar measures that followed the election of New Labour to government in 1997 by 10 years. CPOs have been held by the domestic courts to be preventive rather than punitive measures that do not need to follow criminal procedures to be compliant with Arts.6 and 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights. After three decades of amendment and imaginative application, however, the original CPO has evolved into a punitive measure that is rarely utilised against those who orchestrate football-related violence and goes far beyond what is necessary to prevent low-level football disorder. It will be argued that in order to avoid breaching Arts.6 and 7, the imposition of this evolved CPO - a ‘super-Football Banning Order’ - should be restricted by amendment of ss.14A and B Football Spectators Act 1989. Further, and of wider interest, its previously undocumented incremental evolution should serve as a warning of how other CPOs could evolve similarly punitive impacts on their recipients
