Safe standing at football grounds in England is set to be discussed in Parliament this afternoon.
The campaign to re-introduce standing to the top two leagues of English football has become a huge talking point this year, with a petition regarding the issue gaining over 112,000 signatures.
Supporters are looking for laws preventing standing areas to be relaxed, and for measures to be brought in to allow clubs to implement standing back into football.
The ban on standing areas came in following recommendations made by Lord Justice Taylor in his inquiry following the deaths of the 96 Liverpool supporters in the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. But the introduction of rail seating is seen as a major step forward for supporters who wish to stand at matches in a safe fashion.
Rail seating has already been fitted at Scottish champions Celtic, as well as a number of Germany clubs including Borussia Dortmund, Werder Bremen and Wolfsburg. Clubs in the Premier League and Championship are currently required to be all-seater, while League One and Two clubs can implement standing depending on what stadium licence they hold.
In 2016 West Ham Chairman David Gold said: “I believe that some time in the future the London Stadium will have an area of rail seats (safe standing) dg”
Good. About time. The circumstances around Hillsborough, as tragic as they were, reflect an entirely different time in the history of football, with many lessons quite rightly being learned. There is zero chance of the same overcrowding and restricted movement being allowed in modern football stadiums, that would allocate one supporter to one space, be it standing or sitting. Allowing rail seating doesn’t besmirch the memories of those who were affected – if anything, it honours them.
We all ready have standing at matches so don’t see why officially it will be a problem especially as the Tory boys wouldn’t understand and don’t have a majority vote on anything so I’m guessing if the lazy lot turn up to vote then it should cruise through ok . I expect just railing to be installed then at London stadium which would make it safer officially standing but I hope that it means those who stand in other areas then when the fans there want to sit won’t cause problems amongst everyone and it kicks off. As for sure the daily fail and express Tory papers will love knocking our club once again and even Scouse supporting mayor we have in London that should be supporting a London side might also throw in his bit against us .