Comment: No place yet for soccer terraces

Sep 15 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

IT’S a fairly safe bet that many of those calling for the return of football stadium terraces, at the Lib-Dems’ conference in Bourne- mouth yesterday, are not regular visitors to their own local soccer clubs.

Politicians may be in favour of revisiting the era of draughty terraces and litter-strewn standing areas, because they believe there might be a demand for it among traditionalists, but surely many fans today acknowledge that the modern change to all-seater stadia has been made for valid and sensible reasons.

There may be a few supporters nowadays on Merseyside who yearn for a return to the old days, when they could stand on the terraces and yell at full volume alongside their chums, but the majority surely appreciate that any move in that direction also brings with it a compromise in safety standards.

The Lib-Dems may be right to claim that modern security developments at Britain’s football grounds meant that standing could be reintroduced at many without the risks that were all too obvious – and lethal – in the past.

But there is no getting away from the fact that there would still be some risk, more so than if we retained the status quo and continued to insist on all-seater grounds, as has been the case since Mr Justice Taylor’s invaluable report in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster.

As Hillsborough Family Support Group chairman Phil Hammond rightly points out: "There’s no such thing as safe standing. Once you have standing, you also have to put fences up, that is UEFA’s law".

Everton’s former chief executive, Keith Wyness, revealed some time ago that he had visited Cologne to assess seating areas there, to see if there might be any prospect of considering the idea for the club’s new Kirkby stadium, should the Government modify the rules. But that notion appears to have vanished, along with Mr Wyness.

Terraces at football grounds, no matter how safe their backers might say they are, can still be breeding grounds for vio- lence and hooliganism. No matter what the Lib-Dems say, soccer grounds – and the fans – are better off without them.