Pope, and two accomplices, were charged with affray for an incident in Hanley on 8 February 2009, and Pope received 200 hours community service and a six-month suspended jail sentence. Pope's defence team claimed that he was provoked when the victims verbally abused and assaulted his girlfriend. In November 2019, January 2020 and July 2020 he was suspended for ten matches and fined a total of £7,600 by The Football Association for "bringing the game into disrepute" in regards to unspecified posts he made on social media, with one Tweet being judged to have been antisemitic.