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August 2002
Football Licensing Authority in association with;
In this paper we examine the nature and causes of spectators standing in seated areas at Premier and Football League grounds. We conclude that this is unacceptable from the point of view not merely of the clubs and the authorities but also for many spectators. We identify various possible measures to tackle this matter and indicate who should be responsible in each case.
The Government recently reaffirmed its policy that all clubs in the Premiership and First Division should provide seated accommodation only with effect from 1 August 1994 or, if later, from three years after their promotion into the First Division. Grounds that have become all seated should remain so even if the club is subsequently relegated.
The Government's policy should be understood in the context of Lord Justice Taylor's Report into the Hillsborough Disaster of April 1989, in particular the following key extracts, which remain equally valid and pertinent today:
The Government's policy that Premiership and First Division grounds should be all seated in the public interest is enforced by means of conditions in the licence issued by the Football Licensing Authority under the Football Spectators Act 1989. These provide that:
Each Premiership and Football League ground has its own ground regulations based upon the model ground regulations recommended by the Premier and Football Leagues. Rules 9 and 18 of the model regulations provide that:
Both the Taylor Report and the model ground regulations implicitly distinguish short term standing when spectators are entering or leaving and during moments of excitement from persistent standing during the match. Such short term standing may constitute a hazard. Spectators may slip, fall and injure themselves. Realistically, these risks cannot be wholly eliminated. Nevertheless, the ground management should take whatever physical or crowd management measures it reasonably can to reduce them to an acceptable level.
This paper concentrates, however, on persistent standing during the course of the match unrelated to events on the field of play. Spectators may stand persistently for different reasons, some involuntary, some deliberate, for example:
The case for requiring spectators to sit at grounds that are required to be all seated should be addressed under three separate but interrelated public interest headings: safety, crowd management and other customer care issues.
Safety Spectators standing in seated areas create a number of hazards both for themselves and for those around them, for example:
Crowd management Standing in seated areas can have a number of potentially serious consequences, for example:
Even where this does not lead to misbehaviour, standing spectators may not be in the mood to comply with reasonable requests (in particular to keep the gangways and exits clear - see above) that may be for their own safety.
Other customer care issues Standing in seated areas has a negative impact on customer care, for example:
We therefore conclude that persistent standing in seated areas is against the public interest and that it should be eradicated as far as is reasonably practicable. We have identified a number of general principles that should underlie and guide any action to this effect:
As a generality, it would be preferable for standing in seated areas to be addressed primarily through the education, persuasion and positive management of spectators. However, such measures alone may not achieve the desired results. To the extent that they prove insufficient, they will require to be backed up by action to reduce capacities.
This issue goes wider than safety matters, although safety is a major concern. It also encompasses customer care, crowd management and behaviour, and the relationship between clubs and their supporters. Consequently it cannot be resolved by a single agency but must instead be addressed in the round by the various responsible bodies acting in concert. The FLA, the football authorities, the individual clubs and local authorities, and in some cases the police, all have a role to play.
It is important that supporters are engaged in the process where possible and that they understand why the proposed action is both necessary and ultimately for their benefit. A heavy-handed approach that was perceived to penalise the innocent could be counterproductive and might exacerbate the situation. The measures taken should recognise that not all those who stand for prolonged periods do so out of choice. This may be their only means of seeing the game when other spectators around them are standing.
Each particular case will require a basket of measures. These will vary according to the configuration of the ground, the number and type of spectators standing, their location and whether this is a one-off problem or one that lasts all season. These measures should flow from a detailed risk assessment. They should be reasonable and proportionate, in particular where it is the visiting supporters that are standing and the home club has tried its best to prevent this happening.
The ground management (in most places the club) is responsible for the safety of spectators, for customer care, for providing suitable accommodation for spectators with disabilities and for enforcing the ground regulations. In the first instance, therefore, it is down to management to undertake the risk assessment referred to above and to identify the measures required. These are likely to include measures to educate and persuade supporters, to control the crowd actively and to take firm action against those spectators who do not comply.
In conducting the risk assessment, the ground management should take account of the advice in paragraph 2. 3. e. of the Green Guide along with the general guidance on risk assessments issued by the Health and Safety Executive, neither of which is repeated here.
The ground management should also have regard to all the relevant safety, crowd management and other customer care considerations at the particular ground concerned. The annex to this paper comprises a check list of the main issues to be borne in mind when identifying the hazards and assessing the risks of persistent standing in seated areas. This list does not purport to be exhaustive. It should not constrain the ground management from including any other matters specific to its ground.
Nonetheless, it would be unreasonable to expect each ground management to resolve the problem on its own. Spectators may not respond without some external pressure. Moreover, the ground management's efforts need some degree of co-ordination. They also require support from the football and public authorities.
The football authorities are responsible for drawing up and enforcing the rules and regulations of football, including those relating to ticketing and the number of places to be provided for visiting supporters. These offer opportunities for encouraging good behaviour and penalising certain groups of supporters who misbehave, for instance by allowing clubs to reassign accommodation. However, the scope for such action is limited. While the football authorities can impose certain penalties, it might be difficult to relate these to the specific problem of standing spectators.
The football authorities are also in a position to co-ordinate initiatives by and on behalf of the clubs. These could include communicating with supporters directly and through publicity programmes and encouraging clubs to take a common approach to supporters who persist in standing. This might overcome some of the difficulties that arise from the fact that clubs are not responsible for their supporters when they are away from home.
The local authorities are responsible for setting the ground capacities and imposing terms and conditions on safety matters. However, they have no remit on customer care. Where standing in seated areas presents a safety hazard, the local authority should already be using its existing powers and procedures to reduce the capacity to the level necessary to ensure the reasonable safety of spectators.
However, the act of standing per se, especially by a limited number of spectators in a sparsely occupied stand may not be so unsafe as to warrant such action. After a certain point it might be difficult to justify further capacity cuts on safety grounds. Cutting the ground capacity may not by itself necessarily eliminate all standing in seated areas.
The Football Licensing Authority keeps under review the safety certification by the local authorities. It can provide advice and guidance on what practical measures are available and can ensure that the local authorities are adopting a consistent approach. In an extreme case, if the local authority was acting perversely, the FLA could impose conditions in the safety certificate.
The FLA has the power to refuse to licence any seats with a seriously restricted view of the pitch. However, it would have to demonstrate that spectators were regularly and persistently standing because of the restricted view and not for any other reason. The case would need to be made in respect of each row. Hitherto, the FLA has operated under a voluntary agreement with the clubs. Seats with severely restricted views are not sold; those with lesser restrictions are identified accordingly on the ticket.
Refusing to licence particular seats would be a cumbersome and inflexible weapon against spectators standing in seated areas. The licence was not designed for this purpose. Its terms and conditions cannot be amended without formal consultation over a period of several weeks. The FLA could not react quickly to changes of circumstance. Resort to the licence would be a measure of last resort to be used only if the clubs, the football authorities and the local authorities have been unable to resolve the problem. Moreover, the Government is committed to abolishing the licence in due course.
Each of the bodies referred to above needs to identify the precise action that it should take at either local or national level or both, having regard to the circumstances. The following measures fall into two groups, positive measures to prevent or limit standing and the use of existing powers to reduce capacities. Neither list should be regarded as comprehensive.
The following possible positive measures to be taken by the clubs and / or football authorities have been identified so far.
Ground management (the clubs) should work with both their home and travelling supporters in the context of their customer charter to identify why they are standing and how best to address this.
The clubs and the football authorities should produce a programme for educating and persuading their supporters at both the national and local level about why they should sit. This should cover safety, crowd management and other customer care issues and explain the likely consequences should spectators continue to stand persistently.
Clubs should ensure that season ticket holders and home supporters are clearly warned that it is a condition of entry that they sit and that a deliberate failure to do so is likely to result in the withdrawal of the ticket without compensation and refusal of entry. Season ticket holders and those receiving their tickets in advance by post, should be given this warning in writing.
Clubs should likewise warn their supporters that, if they stand in seated areas while attending away matches, they risk losing any entitlement to tickets for such matches. Home and visiting clubs should co-operate in this matter to ensure that all supporters are treated reasonably and fairly on this issue.
Clubs should use the disability audits required under the Disability Discrimination Act to ensure that their supporters with disabilities are not prevented from seeing the pitch by other supporters standing even for short periods in seated areas. Where views are obstructed in this way, the club should take the row or rows concerned out of use. Clubs should ensure that all supporters in the vicinity are aware of these considerations.
Clubs should take positive action to ensure that all gangways and vomitories are kept clear at all times, along with such measures as may be necessary to prevent uncontrolled migration by spectators standing in seated areas.
If there is good evidence that visiting supporters are likely to stand persistently, the relevant local authority and / or the football authority have the right to limit their number, to consider alternative locations for them or to exclude them altogether. The club should be entitled to seek permission from the football authority concerned to offer the empty places to home supporters, subject to the agreement of the local authority and the police and provided that all their safety and public order concerns are met.
In the event that these measures prove inadequate, the local authorities and / or the FLA will need to use their existing powers to reduce capacities. So far, the following possible options have been identified:
If the gradient of the seating deck is above 25º, persistent standing should be regarded as unsafe by definition. The local authority should require any such area where spectators are standing to be taken out of use on safety grounds.
If the front barrier of an elevated seating deck is not to crush barrier height and strength, persistent standing is unsafe. The local authority should require the club to take at least the front row out of use on safety grounds.
Where significant numbers of spectators are standing, the local authority should reduce the holding capacity of the area concerned by allocating each spectator a width of 550mm, rather than the 460mm of the typical seating configuration, to prevent them spilling out into gangways. Clubs and their supporters should be aware that this alone would result in one in every six supporters in the area concerned losing their tickets.
In addition, if the club is failing to manage the crowd, the local authority should reduce the S Factor for the area concerned to whatever level is necessary to ensure the reasonable safety of spectators. Where the area concerned is occupied by visiting supporters, the reduction could apply to all matches or to those that have been identified as likely to present a particular risk.
As an alternative to the previous option, the local authority could also require the closure of particular rows (radial or lateral) or could limit the use of certain areas to particular groups of spectators (for instance home supporters). The progressive closure of rows from the front would effectively punish the main transgressors and warn those behind that they would also lose their places if they did not sit down.
If the club fails to take measures to educate and persuade its supporters that they must sit down, the local authority should reduce the S Factor and hence the ground capacity.
If the rake is shallow and positively encourages spectators to stand, the local authority should reduce the P Factor accordingly. In extreme cases, the FLA would consider whether to impose a licence condition limiting the use of this area.
Have you identified the underlying reasons why spectators stand persistently?
Have you considered the following hazards (including who might be harmed and how)?
Have you evaluated the following risks?
Have you considered the following in your assessment of the risks (including whether existing precautions are adequate or whether more could be done)?
Have you included the following measurement indicators in recording your risk assessment?
Copyright © The Football Licensing Authority 2008
