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.
Hartley.. hahahaha nearly missed it ranting!
I used to love standing. The old Enclosure or the Shelf. Lovely. But those days are long gone and quite rightly they are never coming back. There is a reference a few blogs above to Hillsborough. Anybody who went there for the 1981 FA Cup semi final v Wolves and stood on the Leppings Lane terrace will surely understand why seating was necessary. Shame was it took a disaster eight years after to accelerate that change.
Sitting down is great. It is natural to stand at the exciting points when you see a goal coming. That even adds to the excitement. But after it sit down and let everybody see the game properly. Move with the times.
Finally I do empathise on the swearing regarding the inconsistency. I went to an Essex T20 at Chelmsford a couple of years ago and the unreserved section was rough, foul and intimidating (principally through booze) but nobody did anything about it.
Surely a safe way could be easily designed to allow for standing allowing more fans in a smaller space and bringing ticket prices down,or is half the reason for seats to price it out of the average footy fans
Well I am sure it was partially done as an attempt to remove the hooligan element but sadly it has had an impact on the ordinary fan with a couple of kids.
Bury your head in the sand. Just because crowd control was almost non existent back then, fool you for thinking all seating is the only answer.
Bold statement to say we should all sit because of hillsborough..
imho – that was a knee-jerk reaction to another problem.
It is possible to make standing safe, by having the right amount of barriers in place.
The fences coming down is a bigger factor in fan safetey rather than putting seats in.
The big fear is of course that all those who like the football atmosphere but dont join in will allow our game to become something akin to watching football in a supermarket. I couldnt stand it.
I am too old to stand now but being bounced all over the terraces singing at the top of your voice was a rite of passage. There should be standing sections.Its a way of getting younger suppoerters in hopefully on a less expensive ticket , they are the liveblood of a club.
You wont know what youve lost til its gone.
:daumen:
Due to medical problems I must remain standing see here
Should we not have a standing enclosure, a seated enclosure, and a ‘business class’ type stretch-your-seat-into-a-bed section for games when we play Stoke (yawn) types ? You could get pisssed, have a kip whilst the games on, snore to the strains of “Oh when the Spurs…” and get woken up at full time to go back to the pub. Everybody wins.