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Talking Point

To Stand or Not to Stand – Now that is a question!

Guest Post by Paul Christopher

The standing situation at the Olympic Stadium (OS) has now become a massive issue for West Ham United. Further clashes among West Ham fans on Saturday as well as with the opposition fans from Watford has led to a crisis of huge proportions and media interest. Sky Sports have reported today that the company in charge of match day security, LS185, think fighting between West Ham fans must be addressed with the club at fault for seating new season-ticket holders alongside existing blocks of fans from the Boleyn Ground (BG). They are absolutely right since that problem they face has been created for them by the club during the migration process!! In condoning standing at the BG and cementing this at the reservation centre they gave out mixed messages to a many people during the migration process.

While this process ha seen a number of people, accustomed to standing, placed in areas which are comparable to where they were in the BG (and so they have stood at the OS) it has also seen a number of people, expecting to sit down, placed in areas where standing was condoned at BG.

This is how the OS looks when compared to the BG.

Bobby Moore Lower Sections 145-148 and 152-155 all rows / all seats = Old BML
East Stand Block 142 All row / all seats = Old West Stand corner enclosure next to old BML.
East Stand Block 141 All rows / all seats to the right of the gangway when looking from the stand towards the pitch = Old West Stand corner enclosure next to old BML.
East Stand Block 130 All rows / seats = Chav Corner / Old STBL
East Stand Block 131 All rows / all seats to the left of the gangway when looking from the stand towards the pitch = Chav Corner.
West Stand Block 114 All rows / all seats = Old East Stand upper and lower tiers next to away fans.

I refer you to the club website where you buy tickets for the Accrington Stanley match (if you want to…) and you will be able to see the layout of the OS block by block, row by row, seat by seat.

It is into the sections listed above that LS185 are suggesting West Ham have sold season tickets to people including families who were expecting to sit down to watch their football. The result is the absolute mayhem with the clashes we have seen. However this is not a return to the dark days of football hooliganism as some media outlets are suggesting. Quite simply the migration process has thrown together sitters and standers who were looking forward to polar opposite spectating experiences. Each party has got upset with the other thus causing a stand off / trouble. The club, who must have been aware this may happen, have seemingly discharged themselves of the fundamental responsibility towards their own fans of safety and violence has been the result. Their solution has been to send in the heavy mob and tar all standers with the same brush stating they are spoiling everyone else’s enjoyment. This is an utter disgrace and does an immense dis-service to the thousands that stood safely at the BG for years with no problems and who helped create the great atmosphere our club is well known for.

People standing in the above mentioned blocks will not block any persons view from an upper tier seat if the domino effect occurs as there are discernible gaps between the lower and upper tiers. The comparable areas in the BG have already been shown to be safe when standing occurs so they should be left to stand helping to create the atmosphere to get the whole OS behind the team. We saw how good the atmosphere can be on Saturday especially after our 2nd goal – it was the business. A review of Match of the Day on Saturday night also showed that it was blatantly obvious that thousands of people were standing at every premiership ground featured except for Bournemouth as far as I could make out. It is not surprising West Ham fans feel unhappy at being singled out for not complying to Premier League regulations on standing when it occurs weekly at the majority of stadia in the English Premier League. Furthermore I do not know of an away section at any major football ground that sits down. There was no attempt to get Watford fans to sit down on Saturday so is it only us the home fans that have to sit down at upcoming OS matches…?

However we as fans are not blameless in the worrying scenes from our first few home matches. Unfortunately a number of people from the BG and new season ticket holders have decided they want to stand in areas where standing did NOT occur at the BG apart from ‘exciting’ moments. Any person standing in any other seat in the East Stand lower tier apart from those outlined above and in any seat in the East Stand Upper Tier will be standing in areas where seating was NOT the norm at the BG. If they stand they will start the domino effect of causing people to stand behind them in order to see. This is where a lot of the issues / clashes are occurring. Standing must NOT occur here. The club must see to this immediately and offer people affected in such areas a different position.

Likewise fans finding themselves in the above mentioned ‘unofficial’ standing areas who want to sit down to watch their football should be aware that these areas have been standing areas for people in the like for like positions at the BG for a number of years. The club should offer these people the chance to swap positions with those that find themselves in what should be expected seating sections in the ground but who do not wish to be seated. This should go a long way to settling the current issues.
The club should lead this but due to their intricate service agreements with a number of 3rd parties (washing their hands of hassle and saving money in other words) have got themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place. Heavy handed security interventions when we were 2-0 up at the time and enjoying ourselves are expressly not the answer. Nor is sending in the Metropolitan Police. As usual it has been left to the fans to set up a seat exchange guidance to which I draw your attention.

With the Hillsborough tragedy now shown to be not the fault of those poor fans who died but a stadium management disaster by the authorities we have to approach standing at football matches in a different way. The board of West Ham should lobby the Premier League for safe / rail standing and be THE leader in this country after Celtic in Scotland. That is something worth trying for and we will be seen in in a much better and pro-active way by fellow fans and the media.

In my opinion it should be possible in the 21st Century for people who wish to stand do so in a safe and happy environment while those that wish to sit should also have the same privilege. The OS is big enough to accommodate such groups and poor management of the migration process by the club is the one and only reason for the debacle we have at present – not the fans !!!!!

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