Posted on 8th February 2017
This is a story from the FSF archive – the FSF and SD merged to become the FSA in 2019.
Northampton Town could become the first club with a new build all-seater stadium to reintroduce standing following the results of fan consultation.
The club will be taking the results of a survey carried out by Northampton Town Supporters’ Trust and the Standing At Sixfields campaign group on safe standing to the local Safety Advisory Group.
More than 85% of the 529 Cobblers surveyed supported the choice of standing and sitting at Sixfields, and more than 60% would purchase a season ticket in a newly installed standing area.
Now Northampton Town will be talking to their SAG, who oversee safety regulations at Sixfields, to look into the matter in more detail together.
The survey is the latest in a long line of surveys demonstrating the popularity of safe standing amongst football supporters across the game. Earlier this month, Everton Supporters’ Trust published similiar results.
Sixfields stadium was built as an all-seater venue even though, having not played in either of the top two divisions since the mid-1960s, they were not legally required to do so
Thanks to Alex Donohue for the image used in this story. Reproduced here under Creative Commons license.
The Football Supporters’ Association (FSA) was contacted last night by the Sports Ground Safety Association (SGSA), who told us that the option for football clubs to offer licensed standing at all levels of the game in England and Wales has at last been passed into official Government policy.
Brentford, QPR and Wolves are the latest clubs to confirm they will have safe standing areas – and more clubs are expected to follow next season as the Government has confirmed that Premier League and Championship clubs can introduce standing during 2022/23.
This week UEFA confirmed that it has approved the use of safe standing in European competitions for the upcoming 2022-23 season.
As part of our partnership with BeGambleAware, safer gambling ambassador and former England goalkeeper David James has selected a shortlist of six of the best saves from the past 12 months for the Safe Hands Award.
