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Standing at football: 13 clubs back pilot scheme

Thirteen English league clubs support re-introducing standing at football grounds, according to a fans' group.
On Tuesday, the Football Supporters' Federation is hoping to win the backing of MPs for its plans for a small-scale trial at Premier League clubs.
It believes the pilot scheme would show standing - outlawed after the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 - is now a safe way to watch football.

English league clubs backing trial
•Aston Villa
•Brentford
•Bristol City
•Burnley
•Cardiff City
•Crystal Palace
•Derby County
•Doncaster Rovers
•Hull City
•Peterborough United
•Plymouth Argyle
•Watford
•AFC Wimbledon

The Premier League has previously said it opposed the idea.
FSF's Peter Daykin said: "We need to find out if it can work and the only way to do that is to trial it."
All-seater stadiums have been compulsory in the Premier League since 1994, following Lord Justice Taylor's report after the Hillsborough disaster.
But MP Roger Godsiff has tabled an Early Day Motion calling for government approval of a pilot scheme.
The FSF says the idea has the support of Aston Villa and the Scottish Premier League plus 12 Football League clubs, including Peterborough United, Cardiff City, Crystal Palace, Derby County and Hull City.
The proposal is to introduce a design of "rail seat" currently used in some European countries such as Germany. This incorporates a safety barrier and a flip-down seat on every other row. The seats can be locked in an upright position, meaning two rows of supporters can stand in between the barriers, which reduces the danger of a crush.
This type of standing area would also be able to be converted to seating for European competitions, where all-seater stadiums are required.
A panel of industry experts containing Villa's chief executive Paul Faulkner and West Midlands Police Force Superintendent Steve Graham will present a case for allowing standing at matches at Portcullis House in Westminster on Tuesday.
FSF's safe standing co-ordinator Daykin told BBC Sport: "The debate about standing has reached a point where both sides are entrenched.
"The bottom line is things have changed dramatically since 23 years ago when the Taylor Report was produced.
"Things have moved on massively in terms of technology and know-how around safety in football grounds.
"So, what we are calling for is a number of small-scale trials at Premier League clubs up and down the country.
"Then experts, safety officers and the police can see how it works in a modern context.
"We have had 50 MPs sign up to Roger Godsiff's EDM and correspondence showing support from more MPs unable to sign an EDM for technical reasons."

would love to see standing come back.

standing is too dangerous

halnone wrote:standing is too dangerous

Yep..Germany have hundreds of deaths per year due to their standing..oh hang on , no they fucking dont do they.

Standing will get back the atmosphere.

carl_feedthegoat wrote:

halnone wrote:standing is too dangerous

Yep..Germany have hundreds of deaths per year due to their standing..oh hang on , no they fucking dont do they.

Standing will get back the atmosphere.

Totally agree, lets hope this pilot works out ok ... the main highlight for me of our season in 98/99 was the away games and standing up. The banter it created (granted away games do that more anyway) was fantastic at times

halnone wrote:standing is too dangerous

There is nothing to stop you continuing to sit down.

I hope this comes off. It will change football for the better.

I'd love to see the name Manchester City FC in that list.

Piccsnumberoneblue wrote:I'd love to see the name Manchester City FC in that list.

ditto

City could incorporate it into their plans to expand, maybe.

carl_feedthegoat wrote:
Yep..Germany have hundreds of deaths per year due to their standing..oh hang on , no they fucking dont do they.

Standing will get back the atmosphere.

Or allow you to discretely piss those four beers you had before the match

call me a cynical old twat by all means, but i don't actually think this will happen unless there's money to be made from it. and the proposals i've seen wouldn't actually create more space/increase attendance, so there's no more money to be made. football in england has moved too far from it's soul to make this viable right now. i've been to more games in germany than i have in this country this season for exactly that reason.

this has soooo much more to it than the ability to stand up at the game. it's about your average man being able to afford to go, being able to go with their friends, and lots more that i won't bore you with. shame.

and before anyone starts with "something had to be done", yes, it did. the stadiums needed to be made safer and the police had to do their jobs, properly.

.....and if it does happen, don't expect it to be a "free standing" area at reduced costs - coz it won't be. it'll be a fudge where you pay the same price for an allocated spot, with stewarding far heavier than the seats.

grrrrrr.

theres an hillsboro panel meeting about the said thing, its been this afternoon their totally against it, for obvious reasons.

feedthegreek wrote:theres an hillsboro panel meeting about the said thing, its been this afternoon their totally against it, for obvious reasons.

I know it's not politically correct but we've just had a judicial review that showed the police to blame. Regardless of my view on that it does go a long way to saying that it wasn't just the the stadia at the time, which was decrepid, and todays proposals could make for a better footballing experience, for some.

I'm sold and would welcome trials. If it's shown to work, why not.

It was probably a bad week for City to be attached to this anyway

We should get behind this. But we won't....

Peter Doherty (AGAIG) wrote:We should get behind this. But we won't....

Not at the moment.

halnone wrote:standing is too dangerous

I was actually joking in this post. it's hard to convey sarcasm on the internet.

I actually don't like standing the whole game....most of it yes but I actually also like having a seat.

If some people, however, want to be able to stand all game then it is clear from the German experience that this can be done safely and they should be allowed to. Agree with what Arjan said though....there's no way most clubs would do it if it didn't actually enable them to increase revenues....so although the tickets might be a bit cheaper to stand, I'm positive they wouldn't be (say) half price.

I agree with every word Arjan...well almost.

The reason that all seater stadia were made compulsory had fuck all to with crowd safety. There were a number of safety features and quite cheap solutions that would have made standing terraces safe that the Government and football authorities were all well aware of, at the time.
like Arjan has said...it is about money. Hillsbrough and Heysel, as tragic as they were, were a godsend to the the football authorities. It is no coincidence that the all seater stadium and Sky TV arrived within a short time of each other. Sky offered the chance for clubs to collect the admission fee to games from non attending fans, via their Sky subscriptions and thus TV payments. It also meant that clubs could chuck in a tuppenny plastic seat and hike the price up.
If it meant that the daft bastards who wanted to kill each other couldn't affords them, there were plenty of nice middle class wankers who could. Football doesn't a flying fucl about your safety, only about your bank account.

Liverpool fans get on my fucking tits.

When Liverpool play an away game in Europe that has a standing area, they go & they stand up. They don't all stay home because of Hillsborough or Heysel. Why is it that it's ok for their fans to do that but not the rest of us in our own grounds ?

Fuck what they think, it's got nothing to do with them. They can stay all seater.