Gästkrönika: Safe Standing
Precis som SFSU kämpar man i England för att ta bort onödiga och kontraproduktiva regler om huruvida publiken skall stå eller sitta på fotbollsmatcher. Football Supporters Federation har i flera år aktivt drivit kampanjen Safe Standing och nu börjar det få resultat. Premier League klubben Aston Villa vill t.ex. införa en ståplatssektion på sin arena.
Two things have shaped the form of the Safe
Standing Campaign more than any other this
year - the success of Jon Darch’s Safe Standing
Roadshow and the public change of
attitude towards the introduction of standing by
clubs in Scotland and then in England.
As a mobile demonstration of rail seating, one of
the FSF’s preferred technologies for safe standing,
the roadshow unit creates a very tangible and
easily understandable visual aid for fans, clubs and
journalists, demonstrating how the latest technology
and design can make standing at football safe.
The Safe Standing Roadshow made its debut
appearance at the Wolves Fans’ Parliament on
Thursday 18th May 2010 and, as the map shows, Jon
has certainly put in the hard yards taking standing
to the nation. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration
to say that his practical demonstration of what
we are promoting has opened more doors and
changed more opinions than any
single initiative in the history of the
campaign. You can learn more about
the Safe Standing Roadshow at
www.safestandingroadshow.co.uk.
Support amongst clubs
Education and engagement only take us so far,
however, and one of the longstanding weaknesses we
have identified has been our inability to draw other
members of the football family onside. This has meant
that the drive for standing at football has been all too
easily dismissed as an idea without popular support
outside of fans. But two events last season completely
changed the landscape of this argument.
Firstly, December 2011’s announcement by Scottish
Premier League CEO, Neil Doncaster (above), that
the SPL’s twelve clubs met and voted for a relaxation
of the league’s rules on standing, paves the way
for pilot schemes north of the border and heaps
more pressure on English clubs to do the same. The
decision came after extensive campaigning from the
Safe Standing Roadshow – we’ll leave it up to others
to decide whether this was coincidence or not.
Secondly, in January this year, following a series of
meetings with FSF safe standing representatives – and
a visit from the Roadshow – we were delighted when
Aston Villa chief executive, Paul Faulkner, became the
fi rst Premier League boss to not only publicly back but
also to get involved in the campaign.
At a meeting with a supporters’ consultation group,
Paul recognised that fans want to stand, that safe
standing areas could help improve the match
atmosphere, allow for some cheaper ticket prices,
and therefore attract younger supporters currently
priced out by the cost of seats. He was then brave
enough to go to the press and call for a trial of safe
standing areas at his club. He has been working
closely with the FSF on the subject ever since. We
would all like to place on record our admiration for,
and thanks to, Paul and his team at Villa.
Our invaluable dialogue with Aston Villa’s head of
security John Handley highlighted the issues many
top level football clubs face dealing with the safety,
licensing, and customer care issues thrown up by
persistent standing in seated areas. We discovered
that the current rules on standing are causing serious
problems and concerns for clubs – it was not a
position we’d heard before and radically changed the
whole nature of the debate.
Other Activity
The campaign group has also engaged in a wide
range of safe standing-related work; from fi nancial
modelling to exploration of sightlines with FA
architects Populous; from local campaigning at
York, Peterborough, and beyond to meetings at
Westminster with MPs and their representatives; from
appearances at the Sports Ground Safety Advisory
(SGSA) conference to ongoing media work. So much
has been done that it’s impossible to list it all here but
Aims and Objectives (below) gives a good summary of
our long-term goals.
Of note externally is the replacement of the
Football Licensing Authority (FLA) with the SGSA
and, in particular, the improved dialogue the
FSF now enjoys with SGSA chief executive Ruth
Shaw, whom we would also like to formally thank
here. Ruth’s starting point is necessarily very
different to our own, particularly given the ‘zero
tolerance’ approach towards safe standing of Ruth’s
SGSA predecessor, but her approach has been
cooperative, fact-based, courteous, and greatly
appreciated by all on the team.
As campaigners all we ask for is an informed debate
on whether or not standing is safe and how this
affects legislation. We have found Ruth’s approach,
if not her conclusions, exactly in line with ours. We
hope that we can develop in the SGSA a critical
friend to ensure that our arguments are always
rigorously thought-out and tested, and look forward
to our continued dialogue with them.
Future work and room for
improvement
The Safe Standing Campaign Group recognises
our failure to include the very many sympathetic
supporters who continually offer to get involved and,
as co-ordinator of the campaign, I am acutely aware
that it is my responsibility to ensure that this happens.
I would, however, argue in mitigation that our failure
to broaden out involvement in the campaign is in part
due to the necessary order in which events must take
place for safe standing to be accepted into football.
We have long been of the opinion that a groundup,
mass participation campaign is most effective
at the point at which attitudes to standing amongst
politicians, councils, and the football authorities have
started to soften. Only then will the added clamour of
demand force the secretary of state for the Department
for Culture, Media and Sport to relax the statutory
instrument and allow a trial of safe standing in the top
two divisions, the fi rst step towards its introduction.
We hope to reach that point early next season,
and are already in the process of planning exactly
such a mass participation campaign that will not
only allow, but require, broader input from football
fans. Keep your eyes peeled in the autumn to get
involved with that.
Thank you
Finally, I would like to thank all of the volunteers on
the FSF/Stand Up Sit Down Safe Standing Campaign
for their considerable efforts this year. We all make
time for the campaign outside of our family lives
and working duties so it is extremely gratifying to
see progress being made as it has this year. I look
forward to working with you all for the year ahead.
Peter Daykin is the FSF’s Safe Standing Campaign coordinator
and elected member of the FSF’s National
Council.
Email: peter.daykin@fsf.org.uk
©Aims and Objectives
The following four aims were put to the vote
and supported unanimously at the FSF Fans’
Parliament 2010:
» Aim 1 – Campaigning for a change in the
rules so that all clubs are able to provide safe
standing areas.
» Aim 2 – Support for the better management
of existing standing within all-seated stadia.
» Aim 3 – Campaigning for the retention of
existing terraces for clubs outside the top
two divisions, where they still exist.
» Aim 4 – Encouraging and working with
clubs to include safe standing areas within
new stadia.
In order to achieve these long-term aims, a
number of campaign areas were highlighted
and objectives outlined in each. These were:
1. Safety – proving that modern standing areas
offer no identifi able risk to supporters.
2. Economics – outlining to clubs and the
authorities the advantages of the fi nancial model
that safe standing offers; higher density crowds
potentially mean lower ticket prices and increased
income for clubs.
3. Politics – building on the excellent work of Don
Foster MP, whose Private Members Bill captured
headlines for the campaign last year.
4. Civil Engineering – offering a clear way forward
for clubs to build safe standing areas countering
the myths and misinformation surrounding
retrofi tting and sightlines.
5. Customer Care/Control – better management
of standing in seated areas and all of the
problems it provokes from blocking views at the
match to punitive ticket allocation reductions from
Council Safety Advisory Groups (SAGs).
6. Leveraging local activists and building
relationships – developing a truly mass campaign.
7. Framing the debate – educating clubs,
authorities and the media to move on from
outdated views, language and imagery about
standing at football.adionwelt.de
http://www.fsf.org.uk/
