Saturday April 15th 1989 is a day amongst the darkest in sporting history. Liverpool fans travelled to Sheffield to see their side play an FA cup Semi Final against Nottingham forest. 96 did not return.
The subsequent inquiry lead to a number of recommendations made in the Taylor Report- one of them being that all major stadia should be made all-seater and all fans with a ticket would be seated at these stadia. The FA then gave clubs a period to convert to an all seater ground in the top 2 divisions by the end of the 1993/4 season. Liverpool knocked down their famous standing Kop at the end of the 1993/4 season. The last Premier League ground to have terraces was Fulham’s Craven Cottage, (who were Division 2- the 3rd tier at the time) before its redevelopment in 2001/2. Many clubs, deciding that it would be too costly to renovate, opted to build new, all seater stadia. Examples include Derby’s Pride Park, Sunderland’s Stadium of Light and Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium.
Pride Park, Derby. Built in 1997, replacing the Baseball Ground
However, a debate sparked by TalkSport tonight (30/12/13) about whether ‘Safe Standing’ should be implemented in the top 2 divisions, made me think of my view on the whole debate.
Football fans in England are becoming concerned that the atmosphere is English football stadia is declining. All seater stadia mean that you sit where you are told, so it is hard to have groups of more vocal fans sitting together. Seats also mean higher ticket prices, ruling out some of the working class supporters and introducing a more corporate/family type of fan into the game. That isn’t always a bad thing. Families of fans at footy games is great to see, but also for the man who wants to go and cheer his team after a week’s work, it is more expensive due to the seated stadia.
It has been discussed that ‘Safe Standing’ should be introduced to bring back the terraces to allow fans to stand in a safe environment. The merits of this are well explained by Jake Walton in his piece at the link here: https://underthefloodlightsblog.wordpress.com/safe-standing/
An example of safe standing in Germany. This photo is from Hoffenheims away end.
My biggest gripe about this debate, however, is- as the title suggests- Hillsborough
I am a Liverpool fan- or more to the point, my ‘big team’ is Liverpool. I am 22. I wasn’t at Hillsborough, nor do I have any relatives nor know anyone who was there. However, I have closely follow the fight for justice and the 20 year wait for the Truth to come out.
The Truth was, Standing was NOT a cause of the fatalities. The disaster stemmed from a road accident, delaying many Liverpool fans. Kick off was not delayed, even though many LFC fans had not got in the ground, so those outside panicked due to the fear of missing the start. The pressure outside small turnstiles was leading to a dangerous situation outside the ground, so an exit gate was opened. The fans rushed through, but they were not led to less crowded areas and instead, went straight for the 2 central pens in the standing section behind the goal, which were already packed. There was overcrowding as a result, but people had nowhere to go. They couldn’t go back due to more fans piling in, the couldn’t go sideways or forwards due to high metal fences, designed to prevent pitch invasions and terrace fights. Fans got pinned up against fences and were crushed to death.
Where does terracing come into this?
Yes, it was a terraced area but this could also have happened if there were seats in there (as there are now). Hillsborough was an ageing ground which was falling apart, like most stadia at the time.
Yet, whenever there’s a debate about safe standing, Hillsborough is always brought up as the proof not to have it. But here’s why I feel we need to remember the disaster and the victims but to also forget the emotional side of it when we hold a debate about terracing.
Standing IS SAFE. Be it safe standing (no deaths in Germany as a result of this) or even terraces like the Town End at my club, Boston (Lincoln City put 2,000+ on there in the Football League days- no safety issue). Peterborough had even older terraces and coped perfectly fine, even with 4,000 Leeds fans going on the away end there.
There are no high fences nowadays- they were what killed people.
The stadia are much improved in the wake of the disaster, they do not resemble the crumbling messes of the 1970s and 1980’s as great as fans may think they were and the nostalgia factor of big terraces like the Kop at Liverpool (and other clubs) and the Holte End (Villa) or the South Bank (Wolves). Crush barriers are also better now. I believe we could go back to normal standing, (not just the safe standing where there are rails every 2 rows).
If policed properly, unlike in 1989, clubs could easily be able to manage the number of tickets sold and the number of people in the standing areas.
Some clubs have included standing (not the safe standing rail seats idea like I showed above from Hoffenheim) in their new grounds, like Burton and Morecambe, and I applaud them. I stood at AFC Telford United’s Buck’s Head the other day and the worst thing I had from a safety point of view was the shiny surface because it was a relatively new build. It really is not dangerous at all.
Morecambe’s Globe Arena. A new build with terraces. The way forward
If standing was dangerous, Yeovil and other football grounds would be not legal unless they were made all seater. Yeovil have standing sections which are OK in League 1 but not OK in the Championship…. it’s a ridiculous rule.
So that is my view on the affair. Please, as emotionally difficult as it may be (and I understand why), put Hillsborough to one side when you start this debate, and realize Hillsborough was not caused by standing supporters. Have the debate, and realize the huge benefits to standing in football grounds. Fans stand in seated areas now and annoy those who can’t see because they want to sit.
Let those who want to stand, stand. Let those who want to sit, sit. End of.
Thanks for reading
Josh
Under The Floodlights 