Geoff Pearson

Geoff Pearson is a Professor of Law at the University of Manchester's Law Department within the School of Social Sciences. He also serves as Academic Director of the N8 Policing Research Partnership. Pearson holds a PhD from Lancaster University (1999) and has held academic roles at the University of Liverpool and Manchester. His research focuses on legal and policing responses to football crowd violence, police powers, ethnography, and EU football labor laws. He advises international organizations like FIFA and UEFA and has authored influential books on football hooliganism and crowd management.

Education: LL.B (Lancaster, 1995), PhD ('Legal Responses to Football Crowd Disorder', Lancaster, 1999). Career highlights include directing the FiMBA program at Liverpool and leading a longitudinal study on police street powers (2013-2019). He co-founded the Ethnography Symposium and contributes to the Journal of Organisational Ethnography. His research often combines ethnographic methods with legal analysis, emphasizing human rights and policing ethics.

Teaching includes Criminal Law, Criminal Evidence, and Sport and the Law. Pearson's work intersects with UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly through addressing social justice in sports. He frequently engages with media as an expert on football-related incidents and policing strategies.

Key collaborations involve the UK Home Office, OSCE, Law Commission, and European Commission. Recent projects include assessing labor conditions of professional footballers and reforming legal frameworks for football crowd management. His 2022 book A New Agenda for Football Crowd Management proposes innovative risk-based approaches to policing and legislation.

Media engagements include BBC Radio and The Mirror, where he provides insights on pitch invasions, hooliganism, and football-related arrests. Pearson’s research outputs span articles, books, and commissioned reports, reflecting his interdisciplinary approach to legal, social, and policing challenges in football.