Swansea City back Safe Standing Campaign!

Swansea City and Wolverhampton Wanderers are the latest clubs to back the Football Supporters’ Federation’s Safe Standing Campaign after both clubs called for a trial of standing areas. Their support comes hot on the heels of 15 other clubs including Aston Villa and Peterborough United who have offered to trial safe standing areas in their grounds. The SPL also supports the campaign.

Take a few minutes of your time, make a difference, and back the FSF’s Safe Standing Campaign – please visit:

www.fsf.org.uk/campaigns/safestanding

Huw Jenkins, Chairman at Swansea City, said: “We would be happy to work with the relevant bodies to look at whether this is something that could be implemented by Swansea City. It would require consultation through our fans (through the Supporters' Trust) but we are happy to support the overall approach and are happy to work to see if this is something that could be trialled at our stadium.”

Swansea City’s support comes after last week’s Parliamentary showcase The Case for Safe Standing in Football. The event was attended by MPs, journalists and football industry figures including representatives from Swansea City – read a report and listen to the event in full here.

The event received a great deal of media coverage and prompted real engagement from senior police officers on the subject of standing at football. The FSF will follow this up and contact the Association of Chief Police Officers and all other stakeholders to outline the case for a trial of safe standing areas.

Wolves’ support followed a visit by the Safe Standing Roadshow and FSF Chair Malcolm Clarke in May 2011. Jez Moxey, Chief Executive, Wolves, said: “At Wolves we fundamentally believe in engaging with our supporters in an open and constructive manner – our Fans' Parliament is an excellent example of how this works to good effect. We are also keen to participate in industry related discussions and the safe standing debate is a topical subject that many fans are interested in.

“An appropriate trial of safe standing would help ensure a robust and evidence-based debate could take place. We, therefore, support the Football Supporters' Federations’s call on Government to give permission for a limited trial or a pilot scheme to take place.

“Of course, there would be lots of difficult issues to address before anything could happen and everyone who is interested in pursuing the idea would need to do it in a sensitive and democratic way paying attention to the current laws that are in place. They would also need to continue to be respectful to the views of the families who lost loved ones at Hillsborough and those who may have very strong contrary views.

“Finally, we also take this opportunity to stress the importance of fans abiding by the current legislation that’s in place and we repeat the call for fans not to persistently stand whilst this debate continues.”

Every week thousands stand in seated areas supporting the team they love. This causes headaches for clubs and safety officials who have to ‘manage’ this problem and the FSF believes safe standing offers a real alternative. Survey-after-survey (see Section 2 - "Who wants safe standing?) has shown that the majority of fans back this position and nine out of 10 fans who completed the FSF’s 2012 Annual Survey backed the choice to sit or stand.

Ugo Vallario of FSF Affiliate Swansea City Travel Club welcomed the Swans’ decision: “I’m all for safe standing because if someone wants to be able to stand at football they should be able to. I’m fully behind it and safety is the bottom line. My wife prefers to sit at football but she backs the choice too, she thinks it’s great for the atmosphere.”

 

I'm an advocate for seating in stadium , it took too many deaths for it not to be implemented but there is a place for safe standing to be introduced .The East stand corner of the stadium for example appears to have a large percentage who stand for significant amounts of the game and I would imagine else where ,although i don't condone i can understand it as i do myself although I am aware that my actions can be annoying to the fans directly behind me so try minimise the time spent standing up.
How the club would go forward with any plans to introduce standing areas may be limited due to the present angle of the seating areas but one suggestion may be to hand over the lower tier to standing as this may reduce the inconvenience to other who prefer to sit and more of a practical solution.

 

I'm all for it.

 

Ill back it even though i prefer sitting myself.

 

why the fk would one stand for 100 minutes rather than sit

 

We sit down at half time Musty.

Don't see a problem with standing if you want to do it

 

Loved it standing at the vetch and i was younger but in the end i sat under the clock facing the northbank, whether it will work at the liberty i dont know but if fans want it then why not...

 

What did happen to the clock ? , I was there for the last game v Wrexham and to see the locusts descend ripping out what ever they could get their hands on was grim .

 

I believe it went missing but has been found again after a plea by the club and is put somewhere in the swans archives of memorabilia..

 

Try sitting down for 100 mins with a temperature of 0 degrees!

 

Safe standing is the way forward for us, it will save us a fortune on expansion costs if it gets brought in quick enough! use the lower area behind the goal and take it a around tto a part of the east lower and that will increase the capacity by an extra 2-3000 people, they would only need to adjust the incline of the lower teir which would be real easy to do as well.

The reason for the swans backing this is that they know it is the most effective way of increasing the capacity and also the most cost efficent, look at Germany and follow what they do,if we end up going down we dont need to worry about 7-9000 empty seats in a 30,000 stadium and that i think is a factor to consider with our increase in plastic fans over the last couple of seasons.

Look to the Boro game for a true picture of our support, this makes it really hard for our club to plan and expand for the future, safe standing is without doubt the way forward

 

how can you take the boro game into account, a midweek mickey mouse match?

 

A WBA initiative for safe standing in the Smethick End was booted into touch today. A pathetic decision by an out of touch Government minister.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43701400

 

I assume there are some that would prefer to stand, at my reclining years I am happy to sit , having said that I would have no problem with designated standing areas but the devil called OH&S now appears

 

As I understand it - safe standing would make little or no difference to capacity.
But
Unless we improve from perennial relegation dodgers (or are in the Championship) we won't need extra capacity.
If Cardiff are promoted we won't need extra capacity as many 'fans' who turn up to watch the favourite big teams will find it easier to get tickets for Cardiff.

 

I am 71 going on 72 so prefer to sit these days so I can still attend matches. However I was happy to stand in my younger days but feel the only practical way to bring back standing at the Liberty is to introduce it as part of a ground extension and yes it was warmer standing in a decent crowd at the Vetch.

 

Know what you mean.
It would also allow the noisy minority to get together and make some serious noise - as they do away from home.

 

Hell this is a blast from the past, PGF are you responsible for trying to resurrect the dead?..................

 

Safe standing will be great for atmosphere, I hope eventually we will find a way that it can happen...

 

The best thing for a good atmosphere is playing good football..............................