Good morning.
A novelty item and so straight to our friends psychological case studies down the road in Woolwich.
Two brothers have been banned for eight years, yes eight years from the Emptycrates after an altercation over ‘standing up’ escalated into an incident where the pair were restrained by coppers HERE.
The charges ranged from abusive behaviour to causing fear of violence and in addition to the bans the dastardly duo picked up fines totalling a little over a grand.
Was this harsh? Well, I’m not privy to the specifics of just how they instilled a fear of violence. Making threats to kill can land you in jail, so presumably it was less nasty than that. Something between, ‘You’re bally well heading for a bunch of fives!’ and, ‘You’re gonna get striped right up the wrong un you slag!’
Now I get get being told to sit down. I like everyone sat down. I’d go to more games if there were comfy chairs or at least cushions provided. My will to live drains when the, ‘Stand up if you hate Arsenal’ gets an airing. I’ve heard the argument/excuse it’s a way of outfoxing the stewards – but to what purpose?
That song has all the wit and imagination of Jeremy Kyle’s haircut.
Standing up when the action reaches fever pitch is of course natural, good honest and right. But otherwise it’s completely selfish. I can just about and I mean just about cope with some idiot insisting travelling to a football ground and buying a seat next to me in order to noisely slug back a tuna bagel, but I draw the line at paying to watch a football match and only getting to see bits of it thanks to some pilchard with an attention deficit disorder.
I don’t believe that several thousand people all on their feet as Azza cuts into the penalty area and weaves past a defender is the nub of the matter.
It’s the thoughtlessness and arrogance of the few that believe that rules don’t apply to them ‘cos they’re at a football match. Like they’ve entered some magic kingdom where it’s somehow alright to do as they please.
Bless ’em.
Given that the vast majority of football violence like it or not seems to be pre arranged so it can actually take place away from the ground, football fans and innocent bystanders I think that Stewards and polie have far too much power inside the ground. Particularly the police who love their overtime, love making a manageable situation worse and frankly dont have balls to mix it with the big boys. If it happens to anyone on here no comment bar your name and DOB and then get a solicitor.
Football is easy picking for freeloaders who need to justify their matchday overtime and Euro pean jaunts.
Standing section yes, all over no.
It should be up to the club regardless of what any plebs say.
If the club rules are to sit then sit.
You wouldn’t go to a cinema and stand. They’d kick you out for being an idiot. Same for the clubs imo.
So anyone who doesn’t agree with you is a pleb?
How on earth can you compare football crowds with cinema goers.
Explain, please!
Ha!
Nah I wasn’t saying that anyone who doesn’t agree with me is a pleb. What I mean is, the Club makes the rules, and there are a lot of people who think that those rules don’t apply to them.
These people are lately, what I would call plebs. Too stupid to see the big picture.
Now although I admit that you can’t compare the cinema experience with a football experience, it’s the same principle.
The establishment has to take crowd as a whole into consideration so this means men women and children of all ages can enjoy the spectacle.
Numerous times at WHL some fellow spuds have completely blocked mine and my nephews view and when I asked if they could budge so my nephew could watch, they basically informed me that as they’d been coming here for years blah blah blah I should STFU.
I paid the same amount of money as them, I’m in the same ground, supporting the same team, but ended up getting stick.
Now I’m 6’3″ so I’m okay in most places. My nephew is 9 years old and I put him on my shoulders so he could watch but guess what happened then?
The woman behind me complained that she couldn’t see.
er a cinema is not a football ground..you wouldnt sing songs in the cinema either.
They simply should have said that they were a syncronised pair of ear worm sufferers who had been plagued with a continual loop of the national anthem and were thus standing for H.M – Durrrrggghhh!
I think some stewards are no more than closet rozzers and feel the need to exert some authority in the way they behave – on the other hand the majority of stewards I see at WHL sre pretty reasonable and doing the job they’re aksed to do- which is to promote both club rules and legal requirements. Irrespective of personal views the clubs have safety certficates and this certification is at risk if safety measures (which includes sitting in designated seating areas) are not upheld.
That said – I’d prefer it if there were both standing (controlled) and seating areas for each group. In this day and age of football supporters as consumer units you’d think that the clubs / the Prem / the FA are failing to identify “market segment” needs.
How about a song “stand up, if you hate sitting down”
Good argument.
But what are the safety implications of standing in seated ares – especially if everyone around you is standing. I don’t see any obvious safety issues.
I cannot see a problem and think that the H&S are mixing up the requirements of those who wish to sit with those who wish to stand – and that is not a H&S issue. It’s a consumer problem.
Seats act as barriers to crowd pushes and must be safer than all standing terraces where surging takes place. You’d be hard pressed to surge over five or six seating rows top get to the front!
Anyway. I will stand when I can. Especially when the guy in front won’t sit down.