Huddersfield Town Supporters' Association column

Mar 12 2009 by Chris Roberts, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

FOR some considerable time now, the Football Supporters Federation has campaigned for Safe Standing areas to be allowed in football stadia, citing the success of these in the German Bundesliga as examples where new technology and crowd management techniques mean that standing is not inherently unsafe.

Within the last week, this campaign has seen two significant developments.

First it was announced that Morecambe Football Club are to become the first league club in England or Wales to incorporate Safe Standing areas into their new stadium.

With Morecambe in League II this is, of course, within the current legislation but nevertheless represents a breakthrough in the campaign for Safe Standing.

A potentially much bigger breakthrough then appeared when it was revealed by Everton FC chief executive Keith Wyness that the club would be interested in the possible return of a limited standing area, if they proceed with a proposed move to a new stadium.

The Goodison official told a House of Commons seminar that Everton might be interested in a pilot scheme if the Government changed the current all-seating ground regulations.

Mr Wyness told the seminar: “As you can all imagine, this is a very sensitive issue because of where we are situated. We are looking for a new stadium and one of our options is that we could have a standing area.