Male and female football fans unite in demand an end to all-seater stadia
With the Premier League now a made-for-TV sport, fans who actually bother to go to matches crave the noise, fun and camaraderie of what’s been lost. And that goes for women and men. Emily Broome, vice chair of the Huddersfield Town Supporters Association, puts the case for standing at the game.
Says @StandUpForTown: “When the powers that be were running out of arguments, they suggested that #safestanding areas would discourage women & girls from attending matches. Here’s @embr00me asking them to drag themselves into the 21st century.”
“Safe standing”, or “standing” as it was called before football was repurposed as a problem, went out after the Hillsborough disaster. In 1989 the police and State colluded to falsely blame the 96 people who lost their lives. When the fans trapped behind the fences called for help, police called in the dogs. They tested bodies in the morgue for alcohol. Disgusting. Shameful. It wasn’t the victims. It wasn’t the survivors and the people who lost friends and loved ones that dreadful day. It was the presentation from the top of football as a “slum sport for slum people“. It was treating football fans as a problem, criminals-in-waiting and deserving of punishment. It was the State’s lust for control.
Now we want our game back. We want to stand if we want to.
Posted: 19th, February 2020 | In: News, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
