Standing Areas to return to Bescot

The polictical scene has now embraced the thought of bringing terraces back into british football. Conservative leader David Cameron vowed to review the ban taking into account the views of fans, police and clubs.

In an effort to appeal to all sides he stated, Safety had to be ‘priority number one’, he said, but there may be a way to organise limited standing areas.

All-seater stadiums were recommended after 96 people were crushed to death in Sheffield’s Hillsborough stadium. Ever since Football clubs in England’s top two divisions are legally obliged to have all-seater grounds. This is what lead to Bescot becoming all seater. Which has had an effect on atmosphere within the ground.

There may be some more modern ways of organising the limited standing areas. Perhaps the way forward was shown by the grounds in German. These have seated areas which can be added or removed depending on the event been held. Football terraces return to some grounds after the world cup.

David Cameron In response to a question on the Tory leader’s website, asking about the possibility of reinstating standing areas, Mr Cameron said: ‘Obviously the first principle here has got to be safety first after the dreadful events at Hillsborough.’

‘But I do understand the point that other countries manage to organise things in a slightly different way, and there may be some more modern ways of organising the limited standing areas.’

He said he would ask his sports minister to review existing regulations and ‘have a really good look at this’.

‘But priority number one has got to be safety,’ he said.

Also on the same topic,More than 100 MPs have signed an early-day motion from Lib Dem MP Mike Hancock to ‘re-examine the case for limited sections of safe standing areas’.

When then sports minister Kate Hoey suggested a return to ‘safely designed standing areas’ at Premier League grounds in 2000, she angered the families of Hillsborough victims.

Hillsborough Family Support Group chairman Trevor Hicks said it was an ‘act of folly’ and accused her of ‘fiddling with safety’.

Sports minister Richard Caborn, who was MP for Sheffield Central at the time of the Hillsborough disaster, is opposed to reintroducing terraces.

But he has agreed to meet supporters of the campaign because of the support for the early day motion.

Perhaps the ground swell of public opinion has changed so the view of the majority of true regular football fans can be taken into account. Perhaps people realise that the behaviour of football fans has changed over years and the Taylor report whilst valided at the time is now seen to have some knee jerk responses held within its noble words.