West Ham Till I Die
Comments
Talking Point

Why the Standers Are Betraying the West Ham Way

Blind Hammer looks at the arguments of the persistent standers and asks them to respect the finer traditions of our club.

The issue of standing threatens to engulf the positive entry into the London/Olympic Stadium and sour relations between fans and the club to an extent not seen since the mismanaged fiasco of the Bond Scheme.

Basically sections of our support are insisting on their right to stand irrespective of the consequences on the enjoyment of supporters around them, irrespective of consequences for supporters unable to get tickets for the game because of decreased capacity, , and irrespective of consequences for club finances in a crucial time of development. Essentially these people are just insisting on their right to stand and damn the consequences for anybody else.

I have heard a number of arguments to support the right of standers.

1. People should have the right to express their passion for the club in the way they want.
2. The club should have organised standing only sections of the ground and the current problem is the entire club’s fault.
3. Because people stood at the Boleyn Ground they should automatically be allowed to stand at the new stadium.
4. If people are elderly/disabled/young they should be grouped away from the fans who want to stand.

Now before reviewing these arguments I should make my own disclaimer. As one of the few totally blind people, actually severely deaf as well, who are attending matches at the new stadium; the presence of standing supporters does not personally affect me at all. Actually one year I went to a game against Burnley and sat in the Bobby Moore stand and was oblivious to the fact that people were standing all around me blocking my view of the pitch. As I cannot see anything it makes no personal difference to me.

However this does not, unlike it seems the standers; make me oblivious to the needs of others.

Let’s take the standers arguments in turn.

“People should have the right to express their passion”

At the Juventus game my brother endured difficulty because a persistent stander was standing in front of him blocking his view. This young supporter was aggrieved because people were denying his right to express his passion for our club in the way he wanted. What he was oblivious of was the passion that supporters like my brother was showing whilst sitting.

My brother, a lifelong Hammer in his mid-70s had dragged himself off his sick bed, suffering a severe chest infection, had travelled over 200 miles from Manchester to be at this historic first game. The amount of effort he had to expend doing this whilst he was unwell kept him in bed for much of the following day. It was his passion for our great club which had driven him to support them despite these difficulties.

The self-obsessed young and healthy stander could only see was presumably somebody he considered an old fogey that was obviously not as important as he was. For myself I consider the passion of life long supporters to attend our club as something to be treasured rather than be ignored or despised.

“The club should have organised standing only sections of the ground and the current problem is the entire club’s fault”.

People who make this argument are clearly naïvely ignorant of the Safety inspections and legal consequences of such a move.

The chances of West Ham having a safety certificate issued for the holding of games at the London Stadium, with explicit collusion in the arrangement of standing areas, Were zero. Over the years it is possible that traditions will emerge with people relocating to allow standing but for the club to organise this explicitly would not have been just , as David gold has pointed out, illegal, but also have made the club liable for enormous damages if any injuries had occurred in these standing areas.

The fact is that we had a disaster, and a judicial review of this disaster which governs the way football stadium in this country are supposed to be organised. To urge West Ham to organise accommodation in a way which flouts National Social and Legal policy in this area is completely unrealistic.
“People Stood at the Boleyn so should be allowed to stand at the New Stadium.”

I have some sympathy for this view but this can only be organised through proper negotiation of safe standing areas. This requires a shift in the national debate, not just at West Ham. I would support people who want to campaign for this. What I cannot abide is those who decide to try and force through this change with complete disregard for the interests of their fellow fans.

Recently whilst going to our first Europa Game I sat on a train next to a supporter who was envious of my season ticket holder status and was desperate to try and get to games. He was going to the Europa games as he was fully aware of how difficult it would be to get a ticket for league matches. There are many in his situation, Karen Brady has said that there are 50,000 people on the season ticket waiting list.

Yet because of the self-interested defiance of the standers the numbers of tickets available to these supporters have been reduced by over half from 5,000 to only 2,000 tickets for each game. The standers are not only blocking the view of people in the ground but are completely preventing others from even getting into the ground because of the restricted capacity arising from their behaviour. It would not surprise me if capacity is reduced even further back to 54,000 if the standers persist. These “supporters” are also avoidably harming West Ham by restricting gate receipts and club growth, in turn reducing opportunities for squad development.
So to the final argument
“If people are elderly/disabled/young they should be grouped away from the fans who want to stand”

This is a sore point for many disabled supporters who have fought for years not to be placed in a “ghetto” of disabled only enclosures. It is an ignorant myth that all disabled people are either blind or wheelchair users. Many people have impairments which are hidden. It may be just as difficult for somebody with a heart condition or severe asthma or diabetes or back pain to stand as somebody with more visible impairments. Disabled people have argued for years that they should be allowed to sit in standard “normal” seating alongside their friends and family.

Many people who are elderly or have impairments do not consider themselves disabled. I think it is sad that they think this way but many would be horrified if they were told they had to sit in a special “disabled” area.

There is no rationale which could possibly argue that children, people with hidden impairments and wheelchair users should all be grouped together. This would definitely be in defiance of much of the ethos behind our equality framework.

So finally why are the standers not following the West Ham Way? For me West Ham is a club founded on our East End roots and community. We are a club which has grown in a deprived area where working class people looked after the needs of others in their community. We are truly a club which tries to maintain the family values and priorities. We want to celebrate not just the support of the young hale and hearty, but the loyal dogged supporter who persists in their support despite a life time of adversity. People, like football clubs, experience adversity. The mark of true support is help for those who need it most, not just for those who can grab what they want when they want.

COYI

David Griffith

About us

West Ham Till I Die is a website and blog designed for supporters of West Ham United to discuss the club, its fortunes and prospects. It is operated and hosted by West Ham season ticket holder, LBC radio presenter and political commentator Iain Dale.

More info

Follow us

Contact us

Iain Dale, WHTID, PO Box 663, Tunbridge Wells, TN9 9RZ

Visit iaindale.com, Iain Dale’s personal website & blog.

Get in touch

Copyright © 2024 Iain Dale Limited.