Football stadia: where does the construction industry stand on safe standing?

As the football season comes to an end, many football clubs will be re-assessing the safe standing facilities inside their stadia.

This article discusses how safe standing is being re-introduced into football stadia, and what football grounds and construction industry professionals need to be aware of when applying for, designing, and constructing safe standing areas.

Background

Following the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, standing areas inside football stadia in England and Wales’ top two men’s football divisions were banned to ensure spectator safety. Today, football clubs both in England and across Europe are permitted to incorporate safe standing areas in stadia, subject to possession of a licence and the all-seated policy (i.e. other parts of stadia remain all-seated).

What do football grounds need to consider when applying for a licence?

Football grounds must prepare the initial application for the appropriate licence. The licence will only permit standing in areas with sufficient infrastructure in place, with other areas remaining subject to the all-seater policy.

The Sports Ground Safety Authority (SGSA) imposes specific licensing criteria which clubs must meet as part of their application, covering four categories:

1. Compliance with guidance

Football grounds must comply with the relevant sections of the current (sixth) edition of the Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds (the Green Guide).

This includes Chapter 12 – Seated Accommodation and Chapter 2 of the current (second) edition of Supplementary Guidance 01: Safe Standing in Seated areas. This supplementary guidance advises that grounds should consider any design and safety management issues, for example, allowing sufficient space for the installation of independent barriers in front of existing seats, or new seats incorporating barriers. Construction professionals will need to ensure that rigorous testing has been undertaken to demonstrate that seating rows are of sufficient strength and condition to allow new barriers or rail seats to be safely installed.

It’s important for grounds to instruct construction professionals who are familiar with the SGSA’s requirements and guidance to ensure compliance.

2. Infrastructure

Some key considerations in relation to stadium infrastructure include:

• Licensed standing areas must be available to both home and away supporters
• Each seat/space must be allocated to one spectator only and be clearly identifiable
• Seats should not be locked in an up or down position
• A CCTV system must be in place and offer full coverage of the licensed standing areas
• There must be no negative impact on viewing standards for other spectators
• There must be no negative impact on disabled spectators.

3. Safety management procedures

Procedures must be in place to monitor and manage the behaviour of spectators in safe standing areas. This includes sufficient training and briefing of staff and stewards and ensuring that only relevant ticket holders are admitted into safe standing areas. Ticket holders must be informed, both at the point of sale and on the ticket itself, that spectators in the relevant area will be standing.

Football grounds will need to develop a code of conduct to ensure high standards of spectator behaviour are upheld in the relevant areas. This should reflect the entry conditions outlined in SGSA’s supplementary guidance. An example code of conduct can be found on the SGSA website.

Grounds must also demonstrate compliance with the SGSA’s Persistent Standing Enforcement Approach in the ground’s conventional seated areas.

4. Safety Advisory Group (SAG) engagement

SAGs are usually co-ordinated by the local authority to provide a forum for discussing public safety at events. Football grounds must show that there has been meaningful consultation with the core members of the relevant SAG about the plans for safe standing areas, whilst also providing evidence of support for those plans by the relevant certifying authority. This engagement with the SAG must be ongoing.

Football grounds interested in offering safe standing should speak to their local SGSA inspector about the application process.

What do construction professionals need to consider when implementing safe-standing areas?

We’ve identified some key takeaways from the SGSA supplementary guidance for anyone instructed to carry out design and construction works:

• For existing seating, carry out detailed measurements and inspections of the relevant area to determine whether the design criteria can be met, or whether structural alterations will be required
• Seats must follow strict criteria to ensure they stay in the upright position when tipped up, and that there are no potential hazards to spectators stepping backwards whilst the seats are fixed in place
• No elements of the seat (e.g. frame, hinges, or arm rests) should protrude into the clearway between the rows of seating to avoid impeding the backward or lateral movement of spectators
• Consider the design and installation of seats incorporating barriers and those with independent barriers, so that spectators who choose to use the seats can do so safely
• Allow sufficient space to install independent barriers in front of existing seats or seats incorporating barriers with this demonstrated on plans, and ideally through a trial installation
• A minimum clearway of 400mm after the installation of independent and/or incorporated barriers for existing construction is recommended, along with seating row depths of 700mm for existing construction, and 800mm for new construction
• Where the Green Guide recommends a minimum seat width of 460mm for existing construction and 500mm for new construction, updated SGSA guidance recommends minimums of 550mm, and preferably 600mm of lateral space.

As more clubs look to implement safe standing areas, construction companies can expect instructions to retrofit existing stadia to meet SGSA’s safe standing licensing criteria. It will therefore be crucial for construction professionals to digest SGSA’s requirements and guidance to ensure that the design and development of safe standing areas align with the SGSA’s licensing criteria.