First, let us take a few moments of silent reflection to remember our 96 fellow football fans who died 22 years ago today at the Leppings Lane End of Hillsborough following Liverpool in their FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest. Let us extend our hearts to their families and loved ones who still mourn, who still wait to know what really happened that day and who was responsible.
As football fans we love the intense, almost tribal rivalries between us. Some things should always unite us however. A shared commitment to ensure such a tragedy caused by neglect and contempt for supporters must be one of them.
I will never forget that day. The atmosphere was surreal at Highbury in the second half of our game against Newcastle United as it became clear just how serious events were in Sheffield. We were all glued to radios listening to the unfolding horror in South Yorkshire. I always get a chill when I watch a recording of THAT game at Anfield the following month when the Arsenal players all run out with bouquets of flowers to give to the crowd in memory.
It may seem the height of insensitivity on this of all days to raise the issue of safe standing but the time has come to debate this issue rationally and without taboo. As a colleague of mine said memorably a few days ago, “If there’d been a safe standing area and no fence at Hillsborough nobody would have been injured, let alone died.”
And that is the point. Standing to watch a football match isn’t any more dangerous than sitting to watch the same game. What is dangerous is bad design, neglected maintenance and poorly organised and co-ordinated stewarding and policing. This point was graphically and horribly illustrated by the disaster at Ellis Park in Johannesburg in 2001 at the Orlando Pirates v Kaizer Chiefs South African Premier League game on 11 April 2001 where 43 fans were crushed to death.
Ellis Park is a modern all-seated stadium. It hosted the 1995 Rugby Union World Cup Final from which emerged the iconic images of President Nelson Mandela with Springboks captain Francois Pienaar. The same stadium hosted games in the 2010 World Cup. It wasn’t standing or seating that killed the 43 supporters. It was poor organisation, policing and stewarding allied to corrupt over-selling of tickets.
Illustrating this blog are pictures of the convertible safe standing area at the Hypo Group Arena in Klagenfurt in Austria, built for the 2008 European Championship. The area converts to a seating configuration for events that require them. Otherwise supporters stand. It was included in the stadium design because that’s what some fans wanted. A cursory glance at the photo will tell you that the sort of disaster that occurred at Hillsborough is simply impossible in such an area. Entrance is electronically controlled preventing over-crowding. The design makes the dangerous cascades which used to occur on the old style terraces impossible. This isn’t a step back to the last century it’s a step forward in the new century.
There are many myths about standing. The opponents of treating fans as adults rather than with patronising, oppressive contempt have all but stopped employing the safety argument. Why? Because the facts are not on their side. We now hear that safe standing areas such as at modern, cutting edge 21st century stadia like the Hypo Group Arena, the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen (home of Schalke 04 in Germany or the Swedbank Stadion in Malmö (home of Malmö FF in Sweden) will promote disorder and inhibit younger, older, black and minority ethic, disabled and women fans from attending. Nonsense.
Just stand outside any of the remaining grounds with standing areas in Football League One or Two and observe the range of people entering the standing areas. You will observe that which I do – as diverse a range of people if not more diverse than those entering the seated areas.
The Premier League and the Football Association say that there’s no demand for standing areas. Nonsense. Every survey of fan opinion shows big majorities in favour of giving fans a safe choice. Thousands have already signed the on-line petition in favour of safe standing being promoted by the Football Supporters’ Federation:
The signatories include many Liverpool supporters who are Hillsborough survivors. The FSF’s report advocating safe standing published in 2007 The case for safe standing at major stadia in England & Wales – A 21st century solution contains a foreword by Hillsborough survivor Anne Eyre:
Alone of the major political parties so far the Liberal Democrats – now junior partners with the Conservatives in our current Coalition government at Westminster – have resolved to support football fans who want a safe choice. Whatever else you may think about the Lib Dems they’ve got this right and they deserve our support in it.
Backbench Liberal Democrat MP for Bath Don Foster has introduced a Private Member’s Bill into the House of Commons which would permit safe standing in the Premier League and Football League Championship. This will next be debated in Parliament on 17 June this year. It is notoriously difficult for backbench Bills to become law. Each of us needs to do everything we can to help give the Bill a fair wind. There are many backbench MPs of all parties who have previously signed so-called Early Day Motions backing safe standing. 114 backed the last such Motion. We need to mobilise that support and convince the sceptics.
If you live in Great Britain or Northern Ireland you need to write to your MP TODAY (snail-mail letters are much better than email and a stamp only costs 34p).
Whether you live in the UK or not you need to write also to:
Ivan Gazidis Esq
Chief Executive
Arsenal FC
Highbury House
75 Drayton Park
London N5 1BU
Richard Scudamore Esq
Premier League
30 Gloucester Place
London W1U 8PL
Alex Horne Esq
General Secretary
The Football Association
Wembley Stadium
PO Box 1966
London SW1P 9EQ
Our new majority owner Stan Kroenke’s Major League Soccer team the Colorado Rapids has the first-ever “supporters’ terrace” standing area at a North American football ground. Let us hope he will be as open to supporter preference and choice as he has been with Rapids fans. The “supporters’ terrace” was introduced following lobbying by fans at the Rapids shiny new ground Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
As former US President Harry Truman once said to his wife, “Bess, why is it that only sons of bitches know how to lick a stamp?” Public house talk about safe standing isn’t enough. You need to write letters and sign the FSF petition. TODAY. And get all your football supporting family and friends to do likewise.
Clearly substantial numbers of supporters prefer to stand. You can see that every week at games throughout England & Wales. There is no rational reason why they cannot be accommodated in comfort and safety as they are in Germany, Austria, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, the USA and Canada.
More than two decades on from Hillsborough we should never forget the 96 Liverpool supporters who died. We should support their continuing quest for the truth of the events of that day. Their memory should be cherished by insisting that we will never tolerate the neglect of supporter safety.
In honouring their memory we should always speak the truth though. And the truth is that standing didn’t kill those who perished. It was bad design, neglected maintenance, indifferent and contemptuous policing and stewarding and the fence which prevented escape to safety.
Please pass on a link to this blog to any football supporter you know who might be interested. Ask them to pass it on in turn, sign the FSF petition and write to their club and MP, the Premier League or Football League as appropriate and the FA.
Keep the faith and never forget those who died on that tragic day 22 years past.
RIP
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