Not everyone wants to stand at a
football match, and Chelsea were only
too happy to relocate the season ticket
holders who asked to be moved when it
turned out that their Stamford Bridge
seats would be in areas identified for
a new safe-standing pilot that begins
this weekend.
But the majority, Chelsea say, will
embrace the opportunity to become the
first football fans since 1994 to be
allowed to stand at a club in the top two
tiers of the English game.
Their match against Liverpool
tomorrow will kick off a government-
backed initiative which, if successful,
will mark the end of all-seat stadiums in
the Premier League and the Sky Bet
Championship. Five clubs are
participating in the “early adopter”
programme, with rails inserted behind
and to the front of each row of seats to
enable safe standing at Cardiff City,
Manchester City, Manchester United,
Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea for
the remainder of this season.
Of the 41,000 fans due to attend the
Chelsea match tomorrow, more than
12,000 will be in the new safe-standing
three decades of campaigning to get to
this point; evidence gathering. In 2017
we conducted a survey involving
18,000 fans, and 88 per cent were in
favour of rail seating.
“We understand better than most the
issues around safety. But it was about
getting the debate out there while still
trying to manage it in a sensitive way.”
While Blott says that safe standingimproved steward training, with the
areas strictly limited to “one person,
one space”.
According to the Department for
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport,
“each supporter will occupy the same
area that they would take up if they
were sitting, with a traceable,
numbered ticket”. “Barriers will be in
place behind and in front of everyChelsea safe-standing pilot
a step into new era for fans
4 1GS Saturday January 1 2022 | the times
Sport Football
areas. Chelsea decided to transform the
Shed End with 6,186 seats, which will be
divided between home and away fans
tomorrow, but the stand can be
reserved in its entirety for visiting fans
at FA Cup games. A further 6,234 seats
in the Matthew Harding Lower Stand
also now make up a significant
safe-standing section.
Standing in the top two leagues was
outlawed by legislation passed in the
wake of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster,
which caused the deaths of 97 Liverpool
fans. The Merseyside club have already
introduced a form of rail seating at
Anfield this season, upgrading 1,800
seats in the Kop and a further 7,000 in
the Anfield Road Stand.
But support for that, and for this new
pilot, was an issue that had to be
handled sensitively, given what
happened at Hillsborough.
“What we have always known is that
standing didn’t cause the deaths of 97
people at Hillsborough,” Joe Blott,
chairman of the Spirit of Shankly
Liverpool supporters’ group, says.
“But what we have done during the
discussions on this subject is try to be
sensible, sensitive, honest and mature
when talking with the families of
victims and survivors. I’m due to be
there at Chelsea. Clearly there has beencould well enhance the atmosphere at
grounds, he considers that to be a less
important “by-product”.
“At certain points in a match it is
natural to want to stand,” Blott says. “I
think the benefit of this initiative is that
fans can have a choice in terms of
standing safely. It’s about standing and
feeling comfortable.
“But the point is this is a pilot, and it’s
one we go into with eyes wide open.
Hopefully it’s a positive experience, but
we will feed back to the Football
Supporters’ Association [FSA], who in
turn can feed back to the Sports
Ground Safety Authority [SGSA]. They
are leading on this, after all.”
It does seem to be something that
clubs and their supporters want, with
Nigel Huddleston, the sports minister,
acknowledging that “fans deserve
different options on how they can enjoy
a live match”.
Daniel Levy, the Tottenham
chairman, said that he was “delighted”
to be involved in the pilot, adding that
the “vast majority” of Spurs fans were
“in favour of this scheme”.
The SGSA has said that there are
strict criteria. Seats must not be locked
in position, giving fans flexibility. CCTV
must also be in place to monitor safe-
standing sections, while there will beMatt Lawton
Chief Sports Correspondent
The safe-standing area at Stamford
Bridge was built in August; main,
Chelsea fans watch a Carabao Cup
tie from that stand in September