After more than three decades of campaigning the voices of football supporters have been heard and standing areas are now allowed in the top two divisions – with clubs free to apply to the Sports Ground Safety Authority (SGSA) for licensed standing areas.

As a result of that historic win, the Government has gaiven approval to the SGSA to allow licensed standing areas in the EFL Championship and Premier League. Since then dozens of clubs have successfully applied for and begun install new standing sections in their grounds.

The go-ahead for the roll-out of new standing areas follows years of campaigning from football fans up and down the country, and followed a period of evidence-gathering by the SGSA. Their research found that, as we all suspected, that safe standing at football grounds has had “a positive impact on spectator safety” and had improved the matchday experience for thousands of supporters who had taken part in pilot schemes.

The research also found that “there is no evidence to date that the introduction of licensed standing areas has led to an increase in standing elsewhere in stadia” – backing the argument that standing areas increase choice and can benefit all fans.

What next?

It’s now up to each club, in conjunction with its local Safety Advisory Group (SAG), to decide what facilities suit their needs. The FSA believes that fans should be part of that process and represented on local SAGs. The SGSA also supports our call for such supporter engagement at a local level.

If you’d like to see standing areas introduced at your club we’d encourage you to contact your local supporters’ group and ask what discussions they’ve had with your club. If you’re from a supporters’ organisation, and would like help from the FSA when making that approach, please get in touch.

There will be more work in future to ensure clubs and SAGs do what should be done but this is a huge milestone. An achievement that many in football, politics and the police told us would never happen.

That campaign would not have been possible without the devotion of dozens of key volunteers over the years and the wider support of many tens of thousands more who signed petitions, lobbied their MPs and held banners in grounds. It’s a victory for us all.

Former-FSA Board member and safe standing campaigner Peter Daykin, said:

“This finally brings to an end the farcical situation in which fans at every ground continue to stand in their thousands – often to the detriment of those who can’t or don’t want to stand behind them – but that clubs can’t officially recognise or tackle in a constructive, proactive way.”

Despite this victory, we won’t stop talking about standing.

It provides choice, drives the atmosphere in stadiums and we will continue to promote different types of standing accommodation – rail seats, seats with barriers and licenced standing areas – which our members support and can now enjoy at all levels of the game.