Leeds United have officially declared their support for the Football Supporters’ Federation’s campaign to bring safe standing to the top two divisions, the 23rd English club to do so.
Shaun Harvey said today "Leeds United would be happy to support the changes required to Football League regulations to allow safe standing rail seats, in the event that Peterborough United are successful in their lobbying of Government to achieve a change in current legislation."
Currently the clubs in the top two divisions have to play in all seater stadia, although clubs promoted from League One can continue to use terracing for the next three years, to give them time to make the necessary changes. Which is why Peterborough are lobbying for a change in the regualtions, as they been using terracing perfectly well for both home and away fans, but will have to start building new stands at both ends if they don’t get relegated.
The rail seats that Shaun Harvey is referring to is the new technology which has been successfully implemented in Germany, a far cry from the old terracing we had in this country in the 1980s. This allows clubs such as Borussia Dortmund to have a huge but perfectly safe modern terrace as their main home end, so they can boast the highest average attendances in Europe. For European games where they have to use seats they have seats which can be folded away under the terracing.
The Leeds United Supporters' Trust (LUST) welcomed the move and said that they hoped the club would install the rail seating in the Kop if there was a change in the legislation to allow it. Gary Cooper said "This is something that LUST has long campaigned for and we hope the football authorities and the Government look again at safe standing. We fully support the rail seating system currently being demonstrated across the country.
"It's clear from the feedback we've had from our 9,000+ membership that supporters want to be able to stand and sing while supporting their clubs, no more so than at Elland Road. We urge the club to look again at the possibility of rail seating in the Kop."
If safe standing was introduced it would not only give us the choice as to how we can watch our football, but it would also allow for a modest increase the capacity of Elland Road and a reduction in ticket prices. Terracing would also make it possible to watch a match with friends without the complication of trying to buy seats together before the match, and give us the opportunity to move if necessary to get a better view.
So it’s great news that the club are backing this campaign, but it won’t be able to re-introduce standing at Elland Road until the government can be persuaded to change the legislation. Which is where you come in, as the more fans we can find to tell them that they want to have the choice whether to sit or to stand, the more likely they are to take note.
Then one day we can make top flight football affordable for the masses once again and get the atmosphere back into our football grounds.