By Andrew Warshaw
October 30 – Aston Villa have become the first English Premier League club to publicly back a supporters’ campaign to bring back safe standing areas on a limited and experimental basis – but look certain to encounter strong opposition.
Standing at matches in the top two divisions of English football has been banned since 1989 following the Hillsborough stadium disaster but Germany (pictured below) has long employed standing areas successfully and campaigners believe doing the same in England would enhance the atmosphere as well as bring ticket prices down.
“We have had a number of good discussions and meetings with the Football Supporters’ Federation (FSF) over the past 12 months and fully support their campaign to allow small-scale trials of safe standing areas at grounds,” Paul Faulkner, Aston Villa’s chief executive, said.
“Whenever we have discussed the topic with our fans we’ve found almost unanimous support for such a trial, and the concept of giving fans the choice to decide to either sit or stand at a game.
“We believe Villa Park could be a potential venue for such a trial, and would like the opportunity to progress the plans further with the wider support of the football community in this country.”
Peter Daykin, safe standing coordinator at the FSF, made the point that fans often still stand up at games anyway even though it is officially banned, and that the time had come for supporters to be allowed to choose.
“Standing was outlawed on grounds of safety, and yet successive Governments have agreed that standing is safe – it’s hard not to when it is done perfectly safely every week at rugby grounds, lower league football grounds and in top football leagues all around the world,” he said.
The Premier League is certain to oppose the campaign, arguing that all-seater grounds had significant benefits.
“Since the introduction of all-seater stadia the supporter experience has improved significantly and we have seen more diverse crowds attending Premier League matches including more women and children,” a spokesman said.
“The police, safety officers and licensing authorities remain clear on this issue and have consistently informed us that crowd management has improved as a result of all-seater stadia being in place in the top two divisions in this country.
“We will not be encouraging the Government to change the law.”
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