EVERTON FC chief executive Keith Wyness has revealed the club would be interested in the possible return of a limited standing area, if they proceed with a proposed move to a new stadium.
In what is certain to be a controversial speech, the Goodison official told a House of Commons seminar that Everton might be interested in a pilot scheme if the Government changed the current all-seating ground regulations.
Mr Wyness stressed he was aware of the sensitivity of the issue after standing was originally banned following the Lord Justice Taylor report into the 1989 Hillsborough disaster when 96 Liverpool FC fans lost their lives.
Mr Wyness told the seminar: “As you can all imagine, this is a very sensitive issue because of where we are situated. We are looking for a new stadium and one of our options is that we could have a standing area.
“I personally went to Germany recently and watched a game at Cologne and was amazed by the atmosphere in the standing area.
“If the Government will discuss it, we may be prepared to offer ourselves as a trial if necessary.”
Phil Gatenby, who was at the Commons as the Football Supporters’ Federation’s safe standing officer, said: “Keith Wyness stood up with a microphone in front of 50 people to make his comments.”
Liberal Democrat MP Mike Hancock has tabled a motion in Parliament for the return of standing areas and attended Wednesday’s seminar about safe standing at football.
Mr Hancock said: “Mr Wyness said he understood it was a sensitive issue, because of the location, and out of the respect the club has for its neighbours.
“They would want to do it along the lines of covered seats that could be taken out or locked away as they do in Germany, which I favour as a very good system.
“They only said they were looking to see if it could be done as they build the new stadium.
“The standing areas would not be huge, nobody is suggesting that.
“Perhaps 10% of the stadium could be made available for certain games – for example, European games are covered by UEFA rules and must be seated.
“He said in this process, if it was to be looked into and one club was to try and experiment, he would want to offer the club, only because it is a new build.
“To be fair to him, he said he understood and respected the sensitivities in Liverpool and made that quite clear.”
