Stephen Thompson warns modern ‘terracing’ areas may prove too expensive for most clubs

STANDING areas could return to Scottish football, although club officials have warned that such a step will come at a price.

Stephen Thompson, chairman of Dundee United and a newly-appointed member of the Scottish Premier League board, has welcomed the initiative, but doubted many clubs could afford to implement it.

United are one of the clubs who spent many millions of pounds renovating Tannadice in order to meet a requirement for all-seated stadia. This was later adopted in 1998 by the Scottish Premier League, which set a minimum limit at 10,000 seats. The number was later reduced to 6,000, and this will still have to be met even if clubs opt to install a modern-version of the terracing which once dominated most British football grounds. Don’t expect railway sleepers and mounds of black ash, put it that way.

“The problem is people expect a return to old terracing and the way those of a certain age watched football when they were growing up,” said Thompson. “It isn’t going to be like that.

“This is a different way of standing. These seats can be locked up and locked down again. It’s still one space per person.”

And, Thompson pointed out, it is also costly. “The model we saw costs about £100 a seat. If you put even just 300 of those in, it will cost you £30,000. It’s an expensive exercise”

The momentum for the move has come from Celtic, who have listened to the views of their fans following a proposal by the Celtic Supporters Trust. Neil Doncaster, the SPL chief executive, yesterday admitted that “it’s fair to say, one club are particularly keen”.

A feasibility study into standing areas at Celtic is already well under way, led by Peter Lawwell. The club’s chief executive was last week forced to rail against a “rogue” element of fans who held aloft an offensive banner and threw flares onto the pitch during the Europa League clash against Udinese in Italy.

An area of Celtic Park populated by the Green Brigade is already an unofficial standing zone and Lawwell is keen to see the SPL recognise the desire for safe standing. As of yesterday, the SPL board now has the ability to approve requests from clubs to pilot safe standing areas for use in SPL matches. According to Doncaster, the extent to which clubs wish to trial these standing areas “is for them to decide”.

Rangers are also keen to investigate the possibility of creating a standing area at Ibrox Park. They, too, have been motivated by the will of the fans. The club released a statement last night which read: “The fans have intimated for some time their desire for a standing area within Ibrox stadium and this is something the club have been looking at in terms of feasibility,” it read.

“However, we are fully aware this will require the support of Glasgow City Council’s Safety Team as per SPL rules.”

Both clubs have reason to be as aware of the safety issues as anyone. A crush at the end of an Old Firm game in 1961 left two people dead, and then ten years later, after another Rangers v Celtic clash at Ibrox, 66 people perished when steel barriers gave way on Stairway 13.

A Strathclyde Police spokeswoman expressed surprise when asked for a response to the SPL’s announcement. “We have not had any detailed discussions with the SPL around the safe-standing areas,” she said. “We were therefore surprised by this announcement today.”

However, there is no question of there being a return to the crumbling, steep terraces of old where a mass of humanity would sway back and forth and surge forward at times of high excitement.

“It’s not terracing like we knew it, it’s not like what you would still find at somewhere like Morton, to use an example,” said John Yorkston, the Dunfermline chairman. He is in favour of anything which might stimulate interest in watching football. Dunfermline recently shut down a stand at East End Park in order to save costs after SPL crowds failed to meet with expectations.

“What we are going to do is look at the safe standing area and look at what costs are involved,” he said. The East End Park board met yesterday and director Rodney Shearer was handed the responsibility of looking into the issue. “If it can be justified cost-wise, I’ll be happy to look into it,” said Yorkston. “But if it comes to £250,000 then it’s £250,000 we don’t have.”

The model being followed is that used in German football, and with considerable success. Although Doncaster talked up this form of safe standing yesterday, the cost of installing the necessary flip-up seats and the probable need to make alterations to the existing stairs could make clubs balk in these straitened times. Clubs are seeking to reduce costs, not increase them.

Doncaster pointed to systems used in Europe such as ‘Rail’, where there is a safety barrier and a seat on every row which can be locked for SPL games and unfolded for other competitions, as options for interested clubs. “There is no suggestion that we are simply opening up the terracing again,” he said. “It is about introducing areas that are safe for standing, like the Rail system that we have seen working successfully in Germany might be considered.

“I have seen it as Borussia Dortmund and at Cologne. The atmosphere is generates is sensational.”

There is, however, a difference between the 80,000 regularly attracted to Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion and the 8,000 or so diehards who currently attend Easter Road, for example.

Hibs have completely renovated their stadium and are rightly proud of its 20,000 seats. It is the country’s largest fully-covered Uefa compliant stadium outside Glasgow. The club reacted with a certain amount of coolness to yesterday’s news, releasing a statement which recognised the change in climate with regard to standing areas. However, the club hoped fans would contribute to generating an atmosphere without the need to accommodate standing.

“If these rules were to change then we may review the position regarding standing sections at football matches,” a spokesman said. “In the meantime this does not mean that supporters should sit on their hands for 90 minutes. We wish the matchday experience to be an enjoyable one. However, supporters are encouraged to use the seating provided for their own and others’ safety, as well as to ensure that the view of those seated around them is not restricted.”

Here, indeed, is the rub. Fans already stand, and when they do it en masse it is hard for anyone to stop them.