GLF 63:Malcolm argues that safe-standing should be the way forward to bring back the crowds.
Modern Football
They say everyone at some point reaches a stage in life where they reflect, look back and say things were better back in the old days, well it does seem to be the case we all get misty-eyed over the way things were sometimes. Doesn't mean that was always the case but if we strip away the nostalgia I think it's safe to say from a fans point of view football isn't as good as it used to be. Yes it's probably safer watching football from the confines of all seater stadiums now that the violence that was attached to football in the 70's and 80's has receded. Anyone can go along to a game and enjoy it without fear of assault or their safety in a crumbling old stadium.
Unfortunately I fear we have thrown the baby out with the bathwater, the need to control fans at football matches was the driving force behind the changes. Football fans were a nuisance that needed reined it, even though it was always only ever a small minority that caused trouble. Heysel and Hillsborough are referred to whenever the discussion comes up over now/then and standing versus seating at football. I have to make it clear I'm in no way diminishing the horror of those two very different tragedies, they clearly highlight the problems with football in the mid/late 80's. So many people lost lives that it would've been a disgrace if something wasn't done I just strongly feel that what was ignored was that there were many reasons why these events happened and the post-Hilllsborough atmosphere that has seen standing driven out of the professional game has been to the long-term detriment of the game and for fans that watch it.
Heysel, football fans rioted, that's bad enough in itself. However if the stadium sanctioned for use for a major European final had not been a crumbling wreck then the worst of the disaster would have been averted. If fans had been better segregated there would have been less chance of a riot ensuing in the first place. That nothing much was done in the aftermath of Heysel is a shambles, banning English clubs from European football matches might well be a fitting punishment for years of trouble of fans abroad and this particular incident, but it hardly gets to the matter of a stadium not fit for use. And as we have seen with events in Italy lately violence is still very much there in some countries with or without all seater stadiums.
Hillsborough, fans turned up late many of whom didn't have tickets. That doesn't help but why at a major cup tie would fans without tickets be allowed so close to the ground to be able to add to the crush? Hillsborugh wasn't as decrepit as Heysel, however its design meant that fans were funnelling into one section more than any other and the fences at the front and sidesmeant people couldn't get out to ease the pressure. It's well documented what happened at Hillsborough, if the police had been less concerned with what they thought was rioting fans and more concerned with peoples safety maybe no one would have died. Certainly 93 people didn't need to die. If only they had open gates quicker? If fans had been managed properly outside and prevented a crush building up in the first place?
After Hillsborough there was the political will to do something, such things should never be allowed to happen again and the safety of people watching the game should be the biggest priority. However at no point in these worst of tragedies was it down to the fact that people were standing at a game that caused the loss of life. It's over-simplistic to put it down to any one thing and thankfully we do seem to have learned some lessons. Our stadiums are now considerably less likely to be a death trap, crowds around the ground are generally better managed it would seem unlikely that such a disaster could be repeated in Europe.Yet it's not all good is it, football is now so expensive. The money that is in the game is hard to believe, billionaire playthings at the top level. One feels that those in charge of the game like it that way, nice respectable middle-class fans that can pay over £1,000 for a season ticket and none of your riff raff-ruining it for everyone. Well that might be ok in the Premiership, Primera Liga, Serie A with the big clubs and the glamorous names that most of us wouldn't mind watching at Fir Park but never will.
You do well to pay in at an SPL games for less than £20 now, which is all well and good for those with a nice amount of disposable income to play with. If however you have to budget a bit carefully then it's a big commitment to go week in, week out to the football. Once you start picking and choosing it's all to easy for the habit to break and fans slowly drift away, especially as with the amount of football on the telly it's not that hard to get a fix.So why don't we have a rethink, many many people miss being able to stand at a game. The freedom to move about and congregate in a loose group rather than being stuck in one place with the same half dozen or so faces about you. It can get tedious I tell you! In Germany you will find in the top division big clubs like Borrusia Dortmund and Hertha Berlin(presumably others) have limited standing areas. They allow up to 20% of the ground to be used for safe standing. I've saw pictures of Berlin's ground, it's a clever yet simple design. Barriers to prevent crushing that have a seat built in for use when they play a European fixture or hold an international. Without needing to do anything it can be used as terracing one day and seating the next.
Obviously it would cost money for clubs to convert to safe seated areas. I would like to see Motherwell do so, I imagine the East Stand or a section of it would be quite easily converted. Formerly terracing it's a pretty poor place to sit and view a game. However SPL rules prevent them, I think it's time this rule was changed and fans at least in theory might have the option of choice. I appreciate many people enjoy sitting watching the game, fair play to them I'm not advocating Fir Park is returned to how it was before we built the South and Cooper stands, but a section where people could stand freely, safely and with a more reasonable entrance fee might encourage more people back and more often. I think you would find a considerable improvement in the flat atmosphere around games. We had 9000 plus fans in for a cup tie just recently against Morton and it might have well have been 900 for all the noise generated. Wasn't helped by a poor game which we had won by half time but sitting has an inhibiting effect in my experience it's harder to be enthused by what is going on around you. Watching football where I sit now it's almost like the balcony that Waldorf and Stadler from The Muppets sit (Two names jumped into my head, you know you are!), idly chatting and criticising what we're watching and not getting that involved 9 games out of 10.
Down south we have something like a 100 MP's names attached to an early day motion looking at re-examining the complete ban on seating in England and Wales. It is a matter of Law down south, it is still encouraging that the issue is at least getting looked at. I hope all the people putting in hard work campaigning for the change have every success and maybe we'll get a rethink up here also. It'll be difficult as the will for change isn't there at the top of the game, fans need to make their feelings known. Even if you prefer to sit yourself, I'd hope you would take an interest and encourage those that make these decisions that it's better to be given a choice. I've not done a great deal, but I've written to my MP and MSP and the more people that do the more they will take note perhaps.
Malcolm Boyd
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