Hillsborough, The debate rumbles on.

In 1989 the most tragic event in English football occurred with the death of 96 Liverpool supporters following a crush at the Leppings Lane end of Hillsborough in the FA Cup Semi Final between Liverpool & Nottingham Forest.  The game was abandoned after just 6 minutes as supporters ran on to the pitch to escape the disaster that changed football and the way it was viewed forever, but was it right. Whilst everyone rightfully remembers those tragic events every year on the 15th April, some still believe it was wrong to take away standing at a top class football stadium.

Debates have raged on for years whether standing should be brought back or not at the highest levels of the English game, even going to Parliament now with several petitions being signed by football fans to bring it back. You have to weigh up the different perspectives though. For one the top bosses have a very valid point, the Taylor report making sure that no standing could be used at high class grounds after the incident because of the potential threat it caused. After all it could have all too easily happened again at some of the older grounds in the country that are in the top two tiers, but the newer ones don't carry that threat so much.



The Globe Arena

 Another factor that should be looked at is the satisfaction of football fans. If you ask a selection of football fans from any league they would tell you that they would prefer to stand rather than sit and in many cases they do stand rather than sit, whether it be at Manchester United or Morecambe. Lower league teams do still of course have the standing as it is cheaper and provides a much better atmosphere to games, even new grounds that are built lower down the pyramid contain terraced sections, Morecambes Globe Arena for example. This is because it brings more atmosphere to the game, it feels more natural, more traditional which is what people like. Even if you are to go up to the Premier League, there is always a section of supporters standing up in a standing area. Why? Because it's what they like, it's what they grew up with, it's how they want to support their team.

There are many safe ways to accommodate both needs. For example one of my personal favourites for this is the away end at Brentford or Southend for example. They have parts for both your needs. The bottom section is dedicated to standing for the more lively, traditional etc whilst the upper tier is for seating. This pleases everyone as it gives a good, safe choice to fans and lets them do what they want to do. This would obviously be a lot harder to replicate for a larger scale, but it is an idea that is well worth looking into. Another idea is one that has been used in German grounds for a while now. Much like the idea of allocated seats, you have allocated standing positions. Each fan is given a ticket number and a little bar to stand at to watch the action, it's perfectly safe as you can't over sell and combines the organisation of seating with the want and traditionalism of standing.

Other arguments that have been heard before is that, because it only happened once, why should it change the face of spectating. Whilst the statement has a point, would you really have risked it happening again, the incident highlighted the problems with standing like that, it also didn't help that it was a high profile game with many supporters trying to cram in right at the start of the match. The organisation of the police was very poor, obviously if their was more security then perhaps it wouldn't have happened, but at the end of the day, there wasn't enough control or security and it did happen.



Standing At Scunny Soon To
Be Gone

 The Taylor report said that all stadiums in the top two divisions had to be all seated, that standing was no longer permitted. This does provide financial concerns for the smaller clubs of the Championship. Take Scunthorpe United for example, only a small club who have been forced into investing money they don't have into seating or face being demoted down to League One, it's simply wrong. Personally I feel that this kind of system should work on the attendances you get on average. Let me explain it too you. Clubs that hardly fill up their grounds, such as Scunthorpe or Preston. They are forced to pay millions for seats that may never be used and just be covered by flags etc, it is wasted money that could be spent on much better things for them and the league. Things like a crush would never happen at Scunny, or hardly any grounds any more, because safety is better and so is security.

One of the main reasons accidents occurred back then such as Hillsborough was because people were able to stroll up on the day and pay a couple of quid to get in. Nowadays that isn't possible at higher class grounds, all tickets have to be bought in advance which ensures no more can get in than is permitted which once again makes it safer.  The organisation is also much better now a days. There is enough space to handle a large amount of supporters and there are more turnstiles to handle more supporters whereas at Hillsborough there were clearly not enough.

You can say that it was a good thing all seater stadiums were introduced because it simply eradicated the possibility of something like this happening ever again. Safety is more important than standing if we're all honest, whilst many people like myself believe standing should be brought back in a safer way at high level, the move they made was correct at the time. The right move was the safe move. These types of fences were removed because of the danger that could be caused and the results speak for themselves. How many incidents like that one have happened since then? None. It was the right move at the time, but with the safety we have now, maybe we do need to look back into it.

However, what we have to remember is the long term consequence of this event. You can argue one way or another whether it was a good or a bad thing to abandon standing in the top two tiers, but these events will never and should never be forgotten. It is a reminder to what can happen at football one of the greatest spectacles in the world can brought down with one person falling that triggers a snowball effect. The 96 that died that day will never be forgotten by anyone, regardless of what team you support, no one ever deserved that.

RIP the 96.