Why standing at football matches should be reinstated

The proposed rail seating have found great success in Germany

Standing at football matches is a very touchy subject for many football supporters. In the wake of the Hillsborough disaster, standing at football matches has been banned in response to the rampant hooliganism at football grounds that haunted the 80s and to eliminate the risk of another stampede like Hillsborough ever happening again at a football match. Whilst I agree that when it comes to events involving mass numbers of people, safety is the first priority, I feel that official permitted standing areas should make it's return to English football.

Now before I start making a case that standing at football should make a return, I need to make something clear. I would only want a SMALL SECTION of the stadium to be dedicated to standing, not the entire stadium. This is a common misconception when people hear arguments for safe standing. I wouldn't want to be excluding women and children who would probably have their views blocked if people were standing in front of them, or older people who cannot physically stand for 90 minutes. However, we should at least give people the choice at football grounds of sitting or standing, and these are the reasons why safe standing should be reinstated:

1. The demand is there

For years, supporters have expressed their annoyance that they've been forced to sit down at football matches. This is because it is far easier to sing and create an atmosphere standing up than it is sitting down on a chair. It is also a lot easier to find fellow fans who want to sing with you in standing areas due to the unreserved nature of ticketing. This is why most away supporters usually stand at away grounds usually resulting in them sounding far louder than the home crowd despite being greatly outnumbered.

Norwich City sent a plea to its away following to sit down at opposition grounds

The FSF’s National Supporter Survey 2009 asked: “Do you think supporters should have the choice of sitting or standing, including having areas specifically designed for safe standing.” 89.8% out of 5,470 respondents said ‘Yes’. 50.2% of 5,503 respondents said they preferred to stand. By the FSF National Supporter Survey 2012, this figure had risen to 92%. That is a staggering statistic. The culture of British fans isn't going to change any time soon so instead of trying to kill it like, we should embrace it and just give the supporters what they want. It is also clear that many football clubs want the reintroduction of standing too: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/exclusive-championship-clubs-set-to-push-for-safestanding-trials-8626274.html

2. Increased attendances

It isn't rocket science that by letting supporters stand, more people can fit in the stadium as more people can fit into an area standing up than sitting down. More people leads to more ticket sales which means more revenue for clubs. This will help Premier League football clubs who sell out the stadium week in week out and also lower league clubs who come the end of the season also tend to pack out their stadiums. These extra ticket sales could be vital cash flow for them in the long term.

3. Cheaper tickets for the fans

Here in my beautiful supply and demand diagram, you can see that if football clubs are able to offer more tickets to the fans, supply will shift to the right from S1 to S2, meaning that the price of the ticket should theoretically decrease from £30 to £25 (if clubs decide not to eat up the extra revenue). These standing tickets should appeal more to younger fans who not only don't have a lot of money to spend, and can probably stand for 90 minutes without a problem. Everyone loves cheaper prices don't they?

4. Safety

Safe standing has been present in the Bundesliga for many years, and has yet to see a single incident or injury directly caused from having standing terraces. The new standing terraces used nowadays have vastly improved in quality and design since the rusty, run down terraces of the 1980s, and safety has massively improved as a result. As seen in the first picture, there is a bar in front every other row of spectators. It is almost physically impossible to replicate a mass stampede like at Hillsborough, and the statistics reflect this.

For those still sceptical about the potential hazards in standing at football matches, don't worry because you've probably survived worse. Standing in a train carriage packed with hundreds of commuters, or at a gig is no safer than standing at a football match. It makes no sense to ban standing only at football matches but not anywhere else.

It's obvious that standing if a dedicated standing area would be far safer than standing in an area designed for sitting. Fans want to stand, and the FA should allow them to do it safely. There simply is no evidence to suggest that safe standing is actually safer than sitting, and no evidence to show standing will compromise supporter safety.

Dortmund's "Yellow wall" has shown safety isn't compromised with atmpshere

 5. It shouldn't have gone in the first place

I don't want to get too involved in the details of the Hillsborough disaster, but it was found that the disaster wasn't actually an issue with the standing terrace, or a fan behavioural issue, it was due to the terrible crowd mismanagement of police and stewards forcing all the supporters into an already packed area. The Hillsborough disaster was what negated the change in law that all football stadia must be all seater as it was first thought that the standing only terrace at the Lepping's Lane end was what caused the tragedy, which was later found out not to be the case. Another issue was hooliganism, and FA officials thought that people standing up to watch a football match were somehow suddenly more violent than if they sat down instead. Now that all the details of Hillsborough have been revealed, we can use hindsight to see that there really was no need to the ban standing at football matches, only a need for improved crowd control and safety standards in the terraces. In response to the hooliganism argument, whilst it's true that incriminating fans (such as the Millwall fan who stole a Police hat at the FA Cup semi final; pictured below) would be more difficult to track down, CCTV and hundreds of TV cameras can be used to track the fan down instead, eliminating such a problem.

In my opinion, standing at football matches should have never been banned in the first place, and instead in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster the government should have forced the redevelopment of the terraces in order to make sure they were completely safe for supporters to stand on.

Catching this guy wasn't so difficult, was it? 

In conclusion, standing areas at football matches should be legalised once again in the UK's higher leagues, with rail seating in the first picture being my choice as the best model for clubs to follow. Once again, I'm not suggesting that all seats should be made standing, just a portion of the stadium to start with, and an expansion if the demand is there.  This should definitely see an increase in atmosphere at football matches along with cheaper ticket prices, all without compromising supporter safety.

Thanks for reading.

Support the safe standing roadshow: http://www.fsf.org.uk/campaigns/safe-standing/