The UK regulator the Sports Grounds Safety Authority (SGSA) has published a 39-page Safety Essentials guidance. Unlike some of the Authority’s documents, this is free to read online.
Covered are the fundamentals of safety at sports grounds; calculating safe capacity; risk management; the ‘physical environment’ – a preventative maintenance schedule, control room and fire safety; an ‘integrated approach’; and certification. Covered are stewarding, an operations manual (‘he way a sports ground operates on a daily basis’), Zone Ex (‘those areas, either in the public domain or under private ownership, considered to be integral to the circulation and safe management of people both arriving at the venue and dispersing afterwards’), and the event planning cycle. Other topics mentioned include terrorism, medical incidents, planning for extreme weather events, and pyrotechnics (fireworks thrown by fans, as featured in the March print edition of Professional Security Magazine).
SGSA chief executive Martyn Henderson said in a foreword: “We support some of the largest sports grounds in the world, who have established safety processes and procedures in state-of-the-art facilities. But we also work with much smaller grounds, which operate on a much lower scale. Safety is equally important at all venues, whether large or small.
“This guidance has been put together to provide an overview of safety at sports grounds. For the first time, we outline the five fundamental elements of safety, and provide an introductory explanation of what they mean. We also provide references to where more detailed and comprehensive information can be found, in our other guidance materials. Lord Justice Taylor in his Inquiry following the Hillsborough Disaster in 1989 wrote ‘complacency is the enemy of safety’. This is something that anyone involved in crowd management should be mindful of. The challenges we face today may not be the same as those as the 1970s and 80s. However, there is a risk attached to every event. Those involved in sports grounds safety must be continuously mindful of the ever-changing environment and risks for crowd safety.”
The document defines safety as ‘Protecting the health and well-being of individuals and groups inside or outside in the vicinity of the sports ground’ and security as ‘preventing, reducing the risk and/or responding to any violence or other criminal activity or disorder’.
About the SGSA
The Authority licences the 92 Premier League and English Football League grounds, andWembley and, as necessary, the Principality Stadium in the Welsh capital Cardiff, to allow them to permit spectators to watch football matches; and ii. oversee councils that by law certify sports grounds for their safety, under the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975. Visit https://sgsa.org.uk/.
Photo by Mark Rowe: Old Trafford, Manchester United FC.
