It’s been announced this week that Wembley will be granted permission to have ‘safe standing areas’.
This only applies to domestic fixtures and will start with a small scale, expected to be 1,000 seats behind each goal.
Given it’s England’s National stadium, this is the first step in eventually all grounds introducing the concept.
After taking part in trials, the Manchester Clubs, Chelsea, Spurs, Wolves and Brentford will be the first batch of topflight sides to be approved licences.
Any long-term readers will know I have always been against the idea of changing legislation which was introduced in 1989 to improve the control of admission of spectators at grounds.
After serious problems led to deaths, making Football venues safer to attend became one of the most improved aspects of the sport.
My attitude is if it’s not broke why try to fix it?
Just so a billionaire can increase their revenue by having a larger capacity.
By the way, don’t think that will mean cheaper tickets which is the PR spin the government are trying to put on this development.
This is the same parliament that step back and let fans be priced out of Cup Finals, half of which go to corporate and sponsors.
The added money goes to owners, 6 of whom in the Prem didn’t think of their customers when they agreed to the Super League.
So no, none of this is for a supporter’s best interest.
Lots of surveys will show that I’m in the minority.
A latest poll with the Arsenal Supporters Trust showed that over 90 percent were open to the idea of safe standing being implemented at the Emirates.
Yet can you trust in 2022 that going to a match day is safe?
Because evidence suggests we have a growing issue in the UK of grown men and women thinking that in the confines of their Football bubble, they can act how they want.
That’s why there has been an increase in arrests at games.
Our national team just had to play a fixture behind closed doors because of spectators’ behaviour at the Euros, essentially a home tournament.
In the Final, people kicked down walls without tickets and got away with sitting where they wanted.
Security and police were accused of being too soft, because essentially to not escalate the situation many ticketless fans ended up finding seats in boxes, etc and remained there for the duration of the night.
Now imagine that scenario but a section where thousands are standing, where you can’t register one person to one seat.
Essentially those same idiots that day in July would charge towards an area harder to police, causing congestion.
Make zero mistake, one injury, one fall is one too many when it’s avoidable.
I have seen nothing from the conduct of fans in Britain to suggest that now is the right time to alter something which has been working.
If there honest, neither have those in power.
Making more money and improving an atmosphere are not good enough reasons to make stadia more dangerous.
Really interested Gooners in where your point of view lies?
Be Kind In The Comments
Dan
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