Standing by fans in all-seater football stadia appears stalemated, but a leading voice in football stadium management is urging the authorities to allow safe terraces. Mark Rowe reports.
The Football Licensing Authority website carries details of a March 21 meeting, hosted by Bath Lib Dem MP Don Foster, between the ‘Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Football Authorities, Football Safety Officers Association (FSOA, www.fsoa.org.uk), Football Supporters Federation, Association of Chief Police Officers’ and others, ‘invited to share their thoughts on the reintroduction of standing at all seated grounds’. <br><br>The FLA speaks of ‘benefits of seating in terms of safety, comfort and crowd management’. While the FLA speaks of wanting to ‘approach persistent standing in a collaborative way’, it wants the rules against persistent standing enforced.<br><br>Mr Foster brought the Safe Standing Bill to the House of Commons. As he said at the beginning of that speech on December 7, 2010, any debate on football stadia will inevitably raise ‘the spectre of the tragic events at Hillsborough in 1989’. A Private Members’ Bill, it is due for a second reading in October and has little chance of becoming law, unless the Government backs it. It is hard to see a politician of any ruling political party going out of their way to back standing, for fear of a bad press and criticism from a victim of Hillsbrough. <br><br>Meanwhile, the co-author of a new book calls it unreasonable to use Hillsbrough as a reason against standing on terraces. Jim Chalmers in More Safety and Security at Sports Grounds (Paragon Publishing, 2011) writes: “I believe the time is right to look forward and not keep looking over our shoulders at the spectre of Hillsbrough.”<br><br>To allow safe standing in the top two divisions of football is feasible, he writes. “The design and control measures already exist for the provision of safe standing. All that is necessary to give the fans what they want is a bold step and a leap of faith by government responding positively to the call for a return of safe standing.”<br><br>Chalmers, a respected figure in football safety, is a former senior West Midlands Police officer and Aston Villa match day commander, a FLA inspector, and most recently deputy safety officer for Kidderminster (and Coventry City). He is the president of the FSOA. He writes: <br><br>‘I believe it is now time to admit that we have lost the battle in persuading fans to sit down at football matches. In other words, it is ‘people power’ which has prevailed. In many cases ground management have given up trying to enforce all seating. Even the football regulatory bodies have accepted the inevitable, that in the overall scheme of things, persistent standing is not a priority.” In times of cuts, there are more pressing issues, Chalmers adds, and indeed the FLA has internal affairs to look to – it will formally change its name to the Sports Grounds Safety Authority later this year. <br><br>In sum, Chalmers describes persistent standing as ‘an everyday occurrence which is no more unusual than fans celebrating a goal or moving in and out of the viewing areas … persistent standing is here to stay’. He points to the scenario that a club promoted from League One to the Championship has three seasons to go from standing terraces to all-seated. What is suddenly risky in season four? <br><br>As in other walks of life, the professionals on the ground by applying (or not applying) the rules may break the deadlock. Chalmers points to a ‘new and less directive style’ of safety certification preferred by the FLA. Briefly as background, a safety certificate says how many people the stadium can take. If abused, in theory the local council can shut the stadium. Chalmers wonders in print what will happen if the safety officer does a risk-assessment and reckons that persistent standing is not a significant safety risk. As responsibility for venue safety is with the man on the spot, would the authorities disagree? <br><br>Web links – <br><br>http://www.flaweb.org.uk/<br><br>Links about Don Foster’s bill:<br><br>http://bathlibdems.org.uk/en/article/2010/062380/don-foster-mp-for-bath-introduces-the-safe-standing-bill<br><br>http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2010-11/safestandingfootballstadia.html
To buy Jim Chalmers and Steve Frosdick’s book More Safety and Security at Sports Grounds (Paragon Publishing, 2011) visit Frosdick’s website –
