Arsene Wenger has once again said that he’s in favour of safe-standing in English football, and says that all-seated grounds have taken away from the atmosphere at matches.
Citing Anfield as a ground with a ‘special vibe’ in England, he was asked if he was in favour of bringing back terracing to some extent.
The Arsenal manager believes it would help energise fans who are now used to padded seats.
“The further you are away from the position of the players, the less supportive you are,” he told beIN Sports.
“The more comfortable you are … imagine people all lying on their backs and watching the game. Half of them would fall asleep.
“It’s taken something away. It’s added security but it’s taken something away on the frenzy of the support.”
And on bringing back some form of terracing, he continued, “I’m absolutely in favour of it. I said that recently.
“I was really sad with what happened at West Ham because it gives some arguments to those who are against standing support.
“I personally am completely for it, especially behind the goal. You would have a different atmosphere in the stadiums.”
With the Celtic thing, hopefully this idea isn’t too far off. Let’s hope so.
Not sure this is a good idea. It also sounds suspiciously like a way to increase capacity while seriously compromising safety.
You must be fun at parties.
It’s a safestanding zone. You must be a recent football fan
Actually it is exactly because I am not a recent football fan that I know there is no such thing as safe standing. It surprises me how quickly we forget the chaos at British football grounds before all-seaters.
As we haven’t had any safe standing installed anywhere in England yet (to the best of myknowledge) I don’t see how you can be so sure it would be exactly like the old days. Wenger is talking about areas behind the goals, and that would suggest that the opposing fans who were standing would be at opposite ends of the pitch to eachother. Do you think that having some fans standing (obviously they would all be hooligans) would make all the sitting fans turn into crazed hooligans too?
Safe standing are no more dangerous than sitting. It was never about the old not so safe standing areas as it was about unsafe fences cops and yeah maybe some small percentile of hooligans. You really should know that if u have been in the game as long as you indicate. Its also very detrimental to english supporterculture. There is more noise in norwegian second divison matches nowadays than in a Pl derby. Thats sad.
You say ‘suspiciously increase capacity’ like that’s a bad thing. It would be amazing if we could use this to get a 70k Emirates or something, standing behind both the goals
Jeopardizing safety to sell more tickets is unacceptable. In the long run standing will attract hooligans and put off people who want to watch games safely. Look at stadiums in Greece or Turkey as examples of what happens when people stand. It is absolute chaos. I thought we were past that in Britain. Apparently I was wrong.
Yeah or look at stadiums in hell syria and somalia. You choose your locations wisely. Why not look to germany ? Not working for your agenda maybe ?
One of my first games was Arsenal Forest in league cup 1992, atmosphere was amazing, clock end was buzzing, would love to see safe standing at the emirates
Could be just the thing to turn the Emirates into Ashburton Grove
Could also be just the thing to get (yet another) one up on Spurs, who think they’re outdoing us capacity-wise with their new stadium…
Safe standing is a no-brainer. At the moment we have situations where fans who want to stand up and sing all game are being told to sit down by stewards for blocking other people’s views. This is fair enough as it is unfair to ruin someone else’s match day experience by blocking their view, but at the same time frustrating for fans who come to create an atmosphere, stand up and sing all game. Introducing safe standing will solve the current steward relating issues which stems from fans standing at the Emirates, and will increase the atmosphere at our stadium… Read more »
Name that stand after Wenger
Hehe, ironically Wenger is usually sitting during the game.
…and the bastard doesn’t even sing with the fans.
The whole stadium should be named after Wenger.
It can’t happen soon enough. Those of us lucky enough to have stood on terraces know what we’re missing. Standing itself was never dangerous. It was the contempt we were held in by authority which was.
Not an arsenal supporter but I welcome the comments. A safe standing section separates those who want to sit from those who want to stand, at the moment we have situations where standing and sitting supporters, are in the same areas of football stadiums. We have thousands of supporters standing Infront of seats every week, with no intervention,objection or announcements saying ‘sit down’ So an official safe standing section is the only answer.
I hate to say this but one of the best thing sp*rs are doing with their new stadium is having a single Terrenced stand behind one of the goals. That will create a more frenzied support if its well designed. Safe standing is a way to do something similar at the Emirates. It would make tickets cheaper for local people who can’t afford to go. support for arsenal is waning in local schools, I think due to kids not being able to go to games. I’ve to safe standing games in germany and its great and feels extremely safe much… Read more »
I’m afraid the 3,000 rail seats Celtic have won’t satisfy the demand in England. Just an observation we would need 15k at Villa, 12-15k arsenal, Manchester United 20k, Spurs 12-15, Liverpool 18k, Leeds 12k and so on.
I’m afraid the 3,000 rail seats Celtic have won’t satisfy the demand in England. Just an observation we would need 15k at Villa, 12-15k arsenal, Manchester United 20k, Spurs 12-15k, Liverpool 18k, Leeds 12k and so on.
I think we need clarification as to the difference between simple old-school ‘standing’ and the modern day ‘safe-standing’.
Also, if we were to have ‘safe-standing’ areas would that mean that everyone else in the seating areas would HAVE to sit down? Cant see that being enforced. Otherwise what is the point of having a standing area if the seated areas are already standing?
Maybe worth adding, I’m pretty sure the 60,000 capacity of the Emirates was a hard cap dictated by Islington Council/the Met police as the maximum number of football fans they were happy to have on the streets/using the public transport systems for a match, not a limitation of the stadium’s design. Now, we have had a decade or so of good behaviour from Arsenal fans might change their thinking (and I can’t remember if concerts at the Emirates have had more people in, which could also influence things). But it may also be that introducing a standing section to the… Read more »