Standing: Banned in Britain!

reply to post by Agit8dChop


The problem is that there aren't any standing sections as it stands. I would welcome standing and seated sections like you find at most concerts, but anyone who wants to stand for the whole match has nowhere to go. We sort of have a compromise where people jump up when something important happens and stand for 5-10 minutes depending on the stewards, then get told to sit down and do so.

If you look at one of my earlier posts I posted 2 guardian links detailing the arguments for and against re-introducing standing sections.

reply to post by Kandinsky


I think the walkout was in protest of the standing ban. The title of the article is "Sunderland fans stage protest against standing ban."

The mail article makes it clearer:
www.dailymail.co.uk...

Sunderland fans have staged a revolt against their own club, after a season card holder was suspended on Boxing Day for standing.

Large numbers of fans in the Stadium of Light resisted warnings from stewards during the game against Tottenham Hotspur, and continued to stand.

One group of supporters chose to walk out of the ground completely, missing John O’Shea’s goal late in the first half.

It looks like a lot of people were standing up to be honest, a wide scale protest. A few fans who might have been a bit more stubborn than the rest have been offered as sacrificial lambs to calm the rest.

Originally posted by Dispo
reply to post by woodwardjnr
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Anyway, as I said I've never seen anyone just stand for the whole match when they get told to sit down. It usually goes in waves. Except at Wembley, nobody listens to the stewards there.

So you have never been to old traford then.

reply to post by marvinthemartian


Never.

There is no way the club can win by enforcing this rule. Generaly, standing up is not meant to be allowed, due to saftey regulations that where put in place after the Hillsborough disaster 23 years ago. However, they tend to let it slide and are quite leaniant (sp), because they don't want to ruin the experience of the match for everyone.
Football is a very intense game, you can't help yourself but jump and cheer for your team when you are surrounded by 10,000's of other fellow supporters, to force them all to stay seated for 90mins is just asking for too much!

If they carry on, all the fans need to do is just not go to a home game, the club will loose a lot of money and recieve the message clear.....Clubs are owned by the fans, not the chairman.

I've had very little to stand up for myself tbh, other than to leave, being a Villa fan *weeps*

reply to post by Dispo


Good thread OP

Sunderland is my local club and let me tell you it's going to the pits, it's not the first time I have heard this either.

English football has learned it's mistakes from standing crowds we can do this safely and effiecently if we wanted and if you ask me it's all about money. Think about it... they have no excuse for not doing it, loads of fans would rather stand than sit too but then the standing tickets would be worth much less than sitting seats wouldn't you agree?
Also the fans who would want to stand are the more "die heart" fans, you know the one's who usually spend loads of money on tickets and transport etc


Also not sure if anyone has visited the stadium of light but the way the seats are tiered it would have to be a really tall person standing in front of you if you cannot see the game... unless your in the crazy corner then if you ain't standing you won't see sh%t literally

P.S not a fan of football in general too much money has killed the game

Ridiculous title...


And I agree with stopping people standing up in front of you, it's very annoying.

reply to post by RAY1990


I agree with you about the money. It's a shame really, I know someone who knows someone who knows someone who lives in a very small house in a very bad area even though he used to play for a major club in the 50s and 60s.

Did you happen to be at that game and in the area? Long shot I know, but can you validate or nullify my claims that the banned people are sacrificial lambs from a large group, or were they genuinely just inconsiderate?

Wow... This really confirms what wussy boys the Brits have become.

In the US we have thousands of sporting events with the same thing. Some people stay standing and block other people's view.

Instead of telling on them like a snotty kindergarten kid, the fans here take matters into their own hands. It's a self-policing type of thing.

If a dude is standing too long and at inappropriate times he'll get heckled first, then hit with popcorn, hot dogs, and eventually beer as a last resort. He knows this from the start.

So all it usually takes is a man who hasn't forgotten than he has a pair between his legs to yell, one time, "SIT DOWN, ASSHOLE!" and that usually solves the problem.

reply to post by Dispo


Misleading title. They are pointing fingers at ass holes that will stand FOR EXTENDED PERIODS OF TIME OBSTRUCTING THE VIEW OF MULITPLE OTHER FANS during their matches. How about we just let the fan jack the dudes in the back of the head if they are standing for let's say more than 45 seconds after a major play in the game.

reply to post by marbles87


As I keep on explaining, nobody does what you're saying they do. Entire boxes sit or stand as one at the command of the stewards or the action of the game, some stadiums have more aggressive stewards. Nobody really has their view obstructed by inconsiderate fans, it's just not the done thing.

If you read the links dotted throughout the thread, you can see that a large number of fans stood in protest of the standing ban at Sunderland. Some of them walked out. Some were banned. Nobody stood in front of someone for the entire game, if it was actually a single person or small group, the stewards would have ragged them out of the stadium or someone would have asked them to sit down.

reply to post by sconner755


I don't think you understand why they are told not to stand, it is not to stop blocking peoples views. The people in front are also lower down, so unless you're 7ft, the person behind can still see.
The standing rule was brought in after Hillborough, where a whole stand collapsed on the people bellow, due to over crowding.

Also, there are not many british people who own our clubs anymore.

reply to post by Dispo


I gave up with that yo-yo club a while ago

I do have friends who went to the game though I'll do some digging around for you later.
I have heard of this being a problem once or twice and SoL does have a very advanced crowd watching CCTV operation, 1 camera to 30 fans give or take the club has had major seating problems before too with some badly laid out areas.

The clubs admin has changed dramatically since it's takeover though and shifted to a total corporation so I could see them being the biggest instigators here, I'll ask about and post on here later today

reply to post by RAY1990


Alrighty, I look forward to your findings. Thanks!

reply to post by Dispo


Thats the thing they are trying to cut down on the standing in general. Not that they want to punish fans for cheering. When fans are failing over rails and stuff because of large groups of people standing people will take action. Granted I'm all for sanding and cheering I can get out of hand in celebration sometimes like anyone else but we need to worry about that fan next to or behind us that prefers to SIT the entire game remember they stratigically put the seats in so when SEATED everyone can see. This is supposed to show people that maybe its time our sporting events rowdiness needs to come down a notch or two. And the people banned were probably warned many times. Nobody will just say "you were standing for 10 seconds longer than legal you are banned" they are banning the ones that they tell over and over and over. If you have to remain seated so that other fans can enjoy the game as you stay in your damn seat.

Originally posted by marbles87
reply to post by Dispo

 

Thats the thing they are trying to cut down on the standing in general. Not that they want to punish fans for cheering. When fans are failing over rails and stuff because of large groups of people standing people will take action. Granted I'm all for sanding and cheering I can get out of hand in celebration sometimes like anyone else but we need to worry about that fan next to or behind us that prefers to SIT the entire game remember they stratigically put the seats in so when SEATED everyone can see. This is supposed to show people that maybe its time our sporting events rowdiness needs to come down a notch or two. And the people banned were probably warned many times. Nobody will just say "you were standing for 10 seconds longer than legal you are banned" they are banning the ones that they tell over and over and over. If you have to remain seated so that other fans can enjoy the game as you stay in your damn seat.

Fans don't fall over rails because of large numbers of people standing, fans fall over rails because of overfilled stadiums. Seats are a way to stop a stadium being overfilled as each ticket corresponds to a seat, you can't just go in any old area, you have a small section of space that belongs to you.

As I've said before, people don't tend to stand on their own at a match, rather everyone stands at once. If you are blocking someone's view, you will sit down when you notice or are told. It's just how things are done. In this case (from what I can see in the articles posted), nobody's view was being blocked, rather a large number of fans were stood up because they felt like, and a few of them were banned as a warning to the others. Several fans walked out because of this.

Originally posted by Trolloks
reply to post by sconner755

 

I don't think you understand why they are told not to stand, it is not to stop blocking peoples views. The people in front are also lower down, so unless you're 7ft, the person behind can still see.
The standing rule was brought in after Hillborough, where a whole stand collapsed on the people bellow, due to over crowding.

Also, there are not many british people who own our clubs anymore.

All very true

The only excuse of not having standing crowds or standing areas is incidents like Hillborough and I know for a fact that it was not the stadium itself but how the whole thing was set up things like exits and how many to a stand etc. Stadiums have to be built by certain standards these days in the UK, guaranteed view space is a part of this I believe and the only problem with standing I see is if the person falls onto the row infront, this is why they should have standing areas in stadiums... health and safety first

It might be a case of fans being told to sit and pretty much tried to revolt

SAFC Forum

It looks to me like the bans are to "come down" on fans constantly standing and as I thought it's the south stand AKA the crazy corner. Every mackem knows what happens in that stand it's the rowdiest one trying to recreate the roker roar

Again I'll ask some mates for personnal accounts.... some are in that stand usually, as it is though it looks like the club following up on warnings and there has been warnings in the past

Originally posted by winofiend
I understand less the English and Australian addiction to ball sports than I do the US addiction to shooters.

I've never stood for a sport, unless it was to get out of the way of a footy.

I just don't find there any reason to get so happy about a bunch of blokes and a ball between goals. I just don't...

And with Aussie footballers and rugby players, I have very little respect for the 'men' who think they are kings of charisma because they can kick.

Mind you I shouldn't jump, they havent raped or drugged anyone in a while.

Sit down, it's hot out there.

Not liking any sports would be like not liking games fullstop, you would need to be a seriously boring and jaded person who's reached unattainable levels of misery to not get it.

It's like saying i've never understood why people wear coloured jumpers or shoes - maybe because they want to. Not everything in life needs some deeper purpose, or purpose whatsoever. Some of the most enjoyable things are utterly pointless, like watching or playing a game, be it tennis, football, chess, solitaire or i-spy

Sports are a reflection of what humans are about, a quest for happiness and Camaraderie . To deny yourself enjoyment of the pointless and fun, to take an anti-community stance against games is a massive shame. It shows that too much logic can make a person cold and, well, a bit silly.

FUN is the word. Rolling down a hill is fun, swinging on a swing is fun, kicking a football is fun, playing with a frisbee is fun, surfing is fun, playing poker is fun, playing snooker is fun, and so on and so on. Sure they're all stupid and trivial as a bottom line, but there doesn't need to be a justification or purpose to them, sports being pointless is the point in itself! that's what point anti-sports people miss, is that nobody wants sports to have a deeper point or purpose - it's a release and distraction from an uptight, stressed society which is dominated by work and worry about deeper and more serious things.

Every community on every corner of earth throughout every year of earth has played and watched sport.

reply to post by Dispo


This little guy is standing tall for Sunderland!