FANS of Sunderland Football Club top the national soccer league of shame.

Newly released figures show the club notched up the highest number of arrests for soccer hooligan offences in the country last season.

A record 223 yobs were arrested at Sunderland home and away games last season, making its supporters the worst behaved in the Premiership and Nationwide leagues.

Thirty-two Sunderland fans were arrested at just one match, the derby game with Newcastle United at St James' Park, and another 53 were taken into custody at Derby to prevent a breach of the peace.

Club supporters condemned the bad reputation brought on the club by the thugs. One fan, David Johnson, 24, said: "It is awful that a small minority can get the whole club such a bad reputation.

"There's no excuse for violence at a match and the club should make sure that the hooligans are kept away from the games. It is a bad way to start a new season with this label for trouble."

Other North-East clubs fared much better in the league of shame. There were 68 Newcastle United fans arrested, significantly down on last year, and only 37 Middlesbrough supporters.

In the Nationwide league, our clubs' fans were even better-behaved. Hartlepool had 22 arrests, Darlington 17 and York City had just two arrests all season.

Although overall figures for football hooligan arrests nationally have fallen from 3,341 to 3,188 there has been an increase in violent incidents and 1,100 fans were arrested for drink-related offences.

The number of fans arrested for throwing objects doubled last season and there were more arrests of people shouting racist chants.

Brydan Drew, of the National Criminal Intelligence Service, believes football hooligans are becoming more organised, using mobile phones, pagers and the Internet to arrange violent clashes with rival fans.

There have also been incidents of hooligans using women to smuggle weapons into grounds across the country.

Two of the top five clubs in the league of shame, Millwall and Cardiff City, are not in the Premiership, increasing fears that stadium violence is increasing in the lower division clubs.

l Last month an unofficial table released by a Labour MP put Sunderland third behind Leeds United and Chelsea, with 18 fans banned or placed under restriction orders by the club