By Andrew Warshaw
February 10 – Limited standing areas could be re-introduced immediately below the top flight in English football following a campaign by grassroots fans’ groups who say better policing and attitudes have changed the landscape of the game.
Clubs affiliated to the Football League, which covers the three professional divisions below the Premier League, have voted in principle to hold further talks about re-introducing ‘safe standing areas’ at their stadiums.
By law, clubs competing in the Premier League and Championship must be all-seater though a number of lower-division sides further down the pyramid still have sections of terracing.
The decision to ban standing in the top two tiers of English football followed an inquiry into Hillsborough stadium disaster in 1989 that claimed 96 lives. A majority of Football League clubs now say they are in favour of bringing back areas of standing for teams playing in the Championship – but nothing will happen straight away.
“We recognise that this is both a complicated and sensitive matter that will need significant debate. Therefore, no-one should assume that it will lead to overnight change,” said Football League chief executive Shaun Harvey.
Many fans routinely get up off their seats at regular intervals at Premier League and Championship matches, despite the imposition of all-seater grounds, and Peter Daykin, safe-standing co-ordinator for the Football Supporters’ Federation, urged the government to support plans for a return to limited standing areas. “It’s a very significant development in the campaign for standing areas in football,” he told the BBC. “We’re approaching 25 years since the Hillsborough disaster and both football and policing technology is a completely different ball game now.”
Safe-standing areas have proved highly successful in countries like Germany both in terms of ticket prices and atmosphere. But a spokesperson for the Hillsborough Family Support Group believes such a move would not be in the best interests of football or the fans.
Margaret Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son James died at Hillsborough, said: “We have listened carefully to the arguments but as far as the Hillsborough Family Support Group is concerned we had a vote on this and it was a unanimous vote that there is no such thing as safe standing. I do not understand why people want to go backwards after so many steps forward.”
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