So I don't like a blog on the BBC

Evening all.

I've been on about writing a blog for a while. I always find something to moan about and most people find it amusing to at least laugh at me. Now I was reading a blog on the BBC website and I thought to myself: "Even I  can do better than this."

So here goes.(And don't worry, they might not all be about football!)

On Monday (the 19th) an announcement was made by the Scottish Premier League (SPL) that it would be relaxing the rules on terraces at grounds in the league. This issue is a very sensitive issue within football, given the history. In April 1989, 96 people were killed attending an FA Cup game at Hillsborough after a crush occurred, and in 1985, 39 fans died in the stadium disaster at Heysel, in Belgium. 

These two events were tragic and shook football to its core. My blog is not to go into great depth about these events and the results of them. There is not enough time for that. The main thing that you will need to know about the events is that the terracing itself did not cause either of these two disasters. There are some aspects of the terraces in place that did have negative effects on the events, but the underlying cause was not the terracing. Other factors to the Hillsborough disaster were the unsafe "crush barriers" and the "pens" that were in place on the terrace. These "pens" divided the entire stand into different sections, allowing no free movement along the entire end of the ground. After the Hillsborough disaster the Taylor report was conducted and as a result in both England and Scotland, clubs in the top divisions were required to convert to all seater stadia.

Don't worry, the history lesson over.

The blog that has prompted this outburst is to be found at the following link.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/16275396.stm

The decision to allow clubs to build terraces is a massive decision, and one I am in favour of, as long as it is done correctly. The Football Supporters' Federation has a safe standing campaign and they say "The FSF believes that football supporters should have the choice to stand in a Safe Standing area, if they so wish. Stadiums would retain seated accommodation for those who wished to sit. It is clear that many supporters have a strong desire to stand." (http://www.fsf.org.uk/campaigns/safestanding.php) This is something I agree with. Having not been born at the time of the Hillsborough disaster there is a certain feeling that I missed out of the glory days of footballing passion. I realise that this is foolish. However, having stood at grounds both in the country and in around Europe I do feel I can at least make an educated decision that I want to stand at a football match.

Some of the opposition to a return to standing is that we do not want to return to the 60s and 70s when conditions for football fans were horrific, and this is true. However, simply by including a section of the ground where fans can safely stand would not be the return talked about by sceptics. As a football fan I firmly believe that we should not be doing anything to discourage people from attending football matches. Armchair fans are one of the things I hate most about football, but that is for another blog. This discouraging of other fans is also something talked about by the opposition to standing. I, and the FSF, are not saying that clubs will have to completely destroy their multi-million pound stadia and replace it with four banks of concrete. I am also not saying that every club must now build some terracing within the current stadium. This idea is insane. What I, and I hope many other fans, want is the ability for clubs to make their own decisions on terracing. Just because they would be allowed to build a terrace does not mean all clubs will instantly do so. Seats will still be there for those who do not wish stand. 

The idea of safe standing may be a new idea to some of you. The old idea of crumbling concrete and big iron fences is not the future of standing. One of the idea for safe standing that has been in use in Germany for a long time is an idea called "Vario-Sitzen." This basically translates to variable seating. The main idea behind the name is that as a fan, when you buy a ticket you would still get a row and number in the same way as been allocated a seat. However once you find your allocated place you are not met by a folding plastic chair, but by a space with your own bar to lean on. This idea solves the problem that you do not know where fans are or how many of them there are as they are all still numbered in the same way. 

Now I've clearly waffled on for far too long on this subject. I hope to those who have now read both my attempt at a blog on standing at football and the BBC's effort will have at least enjoyed my efforts.