Posted on 16th April 2015
This is a story from the FSF archive – the FSF and SD merged to become the FSA in 2019.
Shadow Chancellor and Norwich City fan Ed Balls has announced his support for safe standing in an interview with Evening Gazette journalist Anthony Vickers, who was nominated for the FSF Writer of the Year award in 2011.
Balls said: “To be honest I have no idea what Labour’s policy on it [safe standing] is. Personally, I would like to get back to safe standing. For many clubs things have changed so much. I’m not sure the rules are necessary. As a private citizen I’m very supportive of that.
“The people who lost their lives [at Hillsborough] aren’t forgotten, but nor are the lessons we learnt from that. We’ve got to make sure that anything we do doesn’t go back to the bad old days – I remember going to Norwich games and the away fans were locked in a cage.
“Let’s not lose the good things we’ve achieved. We often go to Rugby League and there’s safe standing there. If it can be done, I’d do it.”
The FSF works hard to build cross-party support for safe standing and has backing from the Welsh Assembly and the Liberal Democrats. In February the Welsh Conservatives also published a report showing 96% of fans backed a safe standing pilot.
Thanks to 10 Downing Street for the image used here. Reproduced under CC license.
Research commissioned by the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) found there was a 48% increase in unmoderated racist online abuse in the second half of the 2020-21 football season, with 50% of abusive accounts coming from the UK.
Green Football Weekend takes place this Saturday and Sunday, as many clubs and fans join forces to take action on the climate crisis.
FSA-affiliates Huddersfield Town Supporters’ Association (HTSA) have joined a number of clubs and Birmingham County FA in giving their support to the Pledgeball environment campaign.
The Government has today (Monday 4th December 2023) backed Karen Carney’s blueprint which aims to “raise standards in domestic women’s football” – including supporting the FA and NewCo in the full professionalisation of women’s football and equal access to sport in schools for girls.
