Premier League and Championship clubs wishing to introduce licensed ‘safe standing’ areas at football stadiums will be allowed to do so from the start of the 2022-23 season, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has announced.
Brentford, pictured, and Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premiership and Queens Park Rangers in the second tier will be the first clubs to join last season’s ‘early adopters’ Cardiff City, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur in offering licensed standing in designated seated areas for home and away fans. Wembley Stadium will also offer a small licensed standing area for fans at domestic matches later in the 2022-23 season. The Government tabled the necessary legal amendments to the Football Spectators Act in Parliament on Monday.
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said: “We want to make the experience of watching football as magical as the play on the pitch. Fans will now be able to cheer on their team from a seat or join others in a safe standing section to really get behind the players and roar on their heroes to victory.
“We are not reintroducing terraces and only clubs which meet strict safety criteria will be permitted. Thanks to a robust trial, thorough evidence and modern engineering, we are now ready to allow standing once again in our grounds.”
DCMS Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston said: “Based upon what I have experienced and we have learnt through the pilot programme, safe standing is set to deliver an electric atmosphere at our football stadiums. Fans have long campaigned for its introduction and we have worked carefully with supporters groups, including the families affected by the tragic Hillsborough football disaster. I am proud of the work that has gone into this rigorous process and that we have delivered on our manifesto commitment to get fans back on their feet in stadiums.”
Background
An application process last year was open to grounds in the top two tiers of English football covered by the all-seater policy, led by the inspectors the Sports Grounds Safety Authority (SGSA). Visit www.sgsa.org.uk/licensedstanding.
Conditions include more use of CCTV, more steward training and fans being limited to ‘one person, one space’. An interim report into last season’s trial was published by the Sports Grounds Safety Authority (SGSA) in April. SGSA chief Martyn Henderson welcomed the controlled return of standing for the modern era, and called it an historic moment for football. Fans are allowed to stand for matches in allocated spaces behind a barrier or a rail in areas of persistent standing. Each supporter has to occupy the same area they would take if they were sitting, with a traceable, numbered ticket.
Seats cannot be locked in the up or down position, so fans can can sit if they wish.
All-seater stadia came in after the Hillsborough disaster, at an FA Cup semi-final in 1989, that saw the crushing to death of 97 fans on the Sheffield Wednesday terraces.
A White Paper on the governance of the English game is expected to be published later this summer, DCMS added.
Pictured; by Mark Rowe; a view from outside Brentford’s new west London ground looking into their home game against Wolves last winter; featured in the March print edition of Professional Security about Brentford’s use of CSAS-accredited traffic marshals.
