Posted on 2nd May 2018
A petition to get fans back into football grounds in line with other sectors of the economy has secured a Parliamentary debate after reaching almost 200,000 signatures.
Parliament set to debate standing next month
This is a story from the FSF archive – the FSF and SD merged to become the FSA in 2019.
Safe standing will be debated in Parliament on Monday 25th June after a petition to Government passed 110,000 signatures.
The surge in signatories to the petition came after the sports minister Tracey Crouch rejected West Bromwich Albion’s application to pilot rail seating at the Hawthorns.
When challenged about the decision, Crouch said that all-seater legislation would not be changed, and labelled those calling for reform a “vocal minority”.
MPs will now have the opportunity to debate the issue in the House of Commons’ main chamber.
FSF chief executive Kevin Miles said: “We’re pleased that the issue will be heading to Parliament and we welcome the opportunity to progress the debate around standing at football.
“It’s clear that football fans want the choice between standing and sitting – that simple choice has huge support among match-going fans across the country.”
The announcement followed the launch of the Stand Up for Choice campaign between the EFL and FSF, a joint survey of football supporters to gauge demand for standing at the match and gathering data ahead of the Parliamentary debate.
Thanks to LWYang for the image used in this article. Reproduced here under Creative Commons license.
