Safe Standing At The Emirates? by Dan Smith
The FA are willing to hear about plans to introduce safe standing in stadiums. According to surveys it’s something supporters want football’s governing body to hear out. How sensitive this subject is to you might depend on your age. if you grew up in only the Premiership era you might consider this change as adding to your match day experience.
Older supporters remember tradgrdies such as Hillsborough. While it took way to long to learn the truth about the negligence in Sheffield, it did force England to look at how their domestic sport was being run. Laws were put into place to ensure every club had Health and Safety regulations to follow.
Since all seating stadiums became compulsory, serious injuries to spectators has decreased, those are statistics more important then decibel levels.
My attitude is if it isn’t broke why fix it? Even if, like at Celtic, assurances can be given that the risk is minimal, what’s the reason to gamble on something that works? Some things in life are more important then football. A human-s well being has to be prioritised over having a better atmosphere which might look good on Sky.
The Emirates is one of many venues which could benefit from being more hostile but that’s not a good enough reason to change legislation put into place to protect us. One death, injury or even scrape of the knee would be one too many.
For me, the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.
Dan Smith