One of my earliest football memories is being in the Roker End for a thumping 6-0 win for Sunderland against Millwall. Prior to the game at Roker Park, Millwall were top of the First Division, only to be replaced by the Rokerites at full time. I vaguely remember a Craig Russell hat-trick as well as goals from Martin Scott (almost certainly a penalty) and Phil Gray. Doing a bit of research, I also discovered that the manager of Millwall at the time was none other than Mick McCarthy. The game took place on Saturday December 9 1995 and within two months McCarthy had replaced Jack Charlton as Republic of Ireland manager. McCarthy later became Sunderland manager.
As great a result as this undoubtedly was, it is not the main reason that I remember that particular game (this result paled into relative insignificance compared to the record-breaking 9-0 win that I had witnessed nine months earlier at Old Trafford, where a ruthless Manchester United had made Ipswich Town look totally hapless). No, as far as I can remember, this was my first game on the terraces and remains one of very few games in which I have stood.
It was the events of April 15 1989 and the subsequent Taylor Report into the Hillsborough disaster which sealed the fate of the terrace in top flight football. As a response to a number of hooligan and crowd segregation problems in the 1980s, it became increasingly popular to erect impenetrable fences around the separate fans. Such a system was in place for the Liverpool-Nottingham Forest FA Cup semi final at Hillsborough in 1989. However, as the gates at the back of the Lepping Lane End were opened at kick-off to prevent problems outside the ground, the rush of people onto the terrace crushed the people nearer the front. 96 fans died.
The Taylor Report into the tragic incident, recommended that all top flight stadia should be all-seater, and by the end of the following decade the move was implemented. (I can remember trying to get into the Roker End in the 1996-1997 Premier League season for a game against Tottenham Hotspur. Sunderland was given grace to use terracing that season because they had a new all-seater stadium being built to be ready for the next season.)
Although all-seater stadia are now the norm in top-flight English football, especially to the younger generation, there remains a significant minority who continue to push for safe standing-areas at Premier League football grounds. In 2000, as reported by the BBC, Kate Hoey, the then Sports Minister, angered the families of Hillsborough victims by suggesting safe standing areas could be introduced. Last year 145 MPs signed a motion in Parliament for a rule change to allow for small, safe, standing areas in football grounds in the top two divisions. Even David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, said in January 2007 that "there may be some more modern ways of organising the limited standing areas."
The top German league, the Bundesliga, is the most common example given by pro-standing lobbyists of effective and safe terracing at large football stadia. The Bundesliga boasts some fantastic grounds, especially as many were revamped for the 2006 World Cup. There are certainly more 50,000+ capacity club stadiums in Germany than in England, all of which offer standing areas. With this in mind, I was very happy to accept the chance to experience standing in the Bundesliga. The Gottlieb-Daimler Stadion in Stuttgart hosted the 3rd/4th place play-off between Germany and Portugal in the 2006 World Cup, as well as England’s 2nd round tie against Ecuador. It has 4,187 spaces for standing out of a stadium capacity of 55,896. And I was there for Stuttgart’s home Bundesliga tie with Hamburg on Saturday 5th April.
The terraced area is different to the old Roker End at Sunderland. Every three steps, space enough in depth probably for two grown men or maybe three younger fans, is regimentally divided up by a railing about stomach-height of a grown man. They span the whole width of the standing area so that the only way in and out, is via the steps to the extreme left or right-hand side. The railings have temporary seats built into them, so that it can be used as a seating area, as was required during the World Cup.
Never for a second on the terrace at the Gottlieb-Daimler Stadion did I feel unsafe. Nevertheless, that is not my whole-hearted endorsement of the re-introduction of standing areas in the Premier League. As a young adult, I have largely grown up with all-seater stadia, and before my trip to Stuttgart’s stadium, I would certainly have said I was happy with the Premier League rules on football grounds. But my experience at the Gottlieb Daimler Stadion made me realise that safe standing areas in large football stadia is possible, workable and it seems, judging by the support for the idea in England, desirable.
The atmosphere in the standing area was fantastic; incomparable with seating areas. Due to the closeness of supporters to each other, the songs resounded in a way that would not be possible in the seats and the German tradition (and in other continental European countries) of jumping in unison was a sight I will never forget. It also encourages conversation between strangers much better than seating areas, and even yours truly with poor German managed a bit of talk with the locals, albeit most of it reverting to English. I am sure anyone who has experienced standing at football knows what I am talking about.
I was not alive for the Heysel disaster, and too young to remember the tragedy at Hillsborough. I did not experience any of the football hooliganism of the 1970s and 1980s, and can only rely on the memories of others, such as those penned in Nick Hornby’s fantastic book, Fever Pitch. It seems to me however that banning terracing in the Premier League was a simple blanket way of giving police greater control over fans. There is no doubt that the policing at matches is much easier nowadays, but the football experience has suffered. And football is entertainment. If supporters behave and clubs are prepared to create safe, standing areas such as those in the Bundesliga (of course clubs may be reluctant after spending so much money on erecting all-seater environments), then maybe there is a future for the terrace at the top of English football. Would a Cameron Conservative government fulfil their promise to "have a really good look at this"? Only time will tell.
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