Frequenty Asked Questions

What’s the club’s stance on all this?

In an interview on Radio Sheffield’s Football Heaven in March 2024, CEO Stephen Bettis updated supporters on the club’s position with respect to safe standing: "We're completely supportive of safe standing and obviously like the idea of it, we’re aware our supporters would embrace it as well…but we won't do it until we redevelop a stand. When we do that we'll definitely incorporate safe standing into that stand."

If the club’s committed to bring safe standing in, isn’t that ‘job done’?

Not quite. It’s fantastic to have a commitment on safe standing firmly voiced publicly (something we’ve encouraged since the start of the campaign), but we believe that we can start trialling this much sooner and should be consulting with fans now ahead of a wider rollout in a redeveloped stand. The club has had planning permission in place for the Kop expansion for 15 years now without a clear indication on when this might happen, if indeed it happens at all - realistically, we can’t be certain that this will done in the next 15 years.

Some clubs have waited to develop a new stand before bringing safe standing in, but the vast majority have introduced this into the existing fabric of their particular stadium. We feel the club need to recognise that they need to be offering an options for fans to stand much, much sooner.

For more, check out our piece in The Pinch from May 2024.

Which clubs have safe standing in England?

The new Spurs stadium is the first in England to install rail seating to the numbers it has done - 6,000 in their home end, and 1,500 in the away end. Wolves used the new flexibility in stadia guidance to install barriers alongside their existing older seating. In 2021/22, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, and Cardiff City all converted existing areas to rail seating. More have followed suit in the Premier League since licensing was widened - check out our Safe Standing Tracker for the latest.

Below the Championship, Shrewsbury Town were the first club in England & Wales to install a safe standing area in 2018 following crowd-funding. As our tracker shows, this isn’t something just for the top two leagues, as clubs across the whole EFL are getting on board.

Are the rows of the Kop too narrow for safe standing to be introduced?

If the Kop was being built today, the current row depth wouldn’t be considered enough to meet SGSA guidance - it is by modern standards a bit of a squeeze, built on top of the old terracing. The type of rail seating that uses a separate barrier alongside a traditional seat would not therefore work.

However, rail seating could certainly still be introduced here - and could offer some benefits in maximising the existing depth. It would require the type of rail seat that looks more like the style in use at Celtic and abroad, where the seat and rail are incorporated into one.

We have seating on the Kop of the era it was installed - 30 years old and taking up a lot of the row space when folded down. These are on what was the terracing of the old Kop, which underwent work to house the seating when the stand was converted, modifying the old rows. The row depth varies, but is about 670-710mm depending on where on the Kop you measure. There are minimum standards that the SGSA recommend after the installation of independent rails or seats incorporating rails - if they aren’t met, then a licence for use is unlikely.

Essentially, for the Kop you need a rail seat that takes up a minimal amount of the row depth.

We’ve spoken to rail seating experts Ferco, who supplied rail seats at both Celtic, Shrewsbury, and most recently QPR for 2022/23. They suggested we could potentially free up space on the Kop rows by introducing rail seats with less opened/closed depth than the current seating. Of their current rail seat options, they have options that would meet the Kop’s requirements for rail seating.

The Kop isn’t the only place that rail seating could be trialled, but there are no barriers to introducing it on the Kop - just fewer options to choose from to do this.

Safe standing at Shrewsbury - the rail seat design maximises the space for standing on each row

Rail seat Cardiff

Safe standing from our game at Cardiff in 2021 - the independent rail alongside standard seat takes up more room on the row than a proper all-in-one rail seat

Would safe standing enable United to expand its capacity by having more standing fans than are allowed to be seated?

One of the great potential bonuses of safe standing is the hope that it might be one way of expanding capacity without having to significantly change a stand. That remains a hope in the future for safe standing in the top two divisions, though currently the safe standing guidance by the SGSA does not permit this - these are operating on a like-for-like capacity (i.e. 1 person per rail seat).

Space and rail seat design is also a factor here. If the design hasn’t been carefully thought through, and it doesn’t meet requirements, capacity on a row could actually reduce compared to seated capacity - something crucial to avoid. Given the challenging spacing on the Kop explained above, it is very unlikely that a capacity increase could occur there, but may be possible in areas where spacing is less restrictive.

If the Kop is going to be redeveloped or rebuilt anyway eventually with new seating, would installing safe standing be pointless to do now?

Rail seating of the type described above are reusable - be is reinstallable in a new stand, or by a new club if we no longer had use for them. This has already been displayed in Germany.

Why have some clubs with rail seats in use not yet licensed these as safe standing?

Not all clubs that introduced rail seating immediately applied for a standing license for these areas. Liverpool, for example, introduced rail seating in some areas but opted not to join the safe standing trials during 2021-22 and only brought in a standing licence in August 2023. Clubs may look to save money by delaying the SGSA requirement for safe standing to be offered to both home and away supporters, but an SGSA change in 2023/24 means that this can only be a temporary move - clubs should now apply to SGSA to operate licensed standing areas within two years of the installation of rail seating. Under the current guidance, unless part of the away end has rail seating this will not be granted a standing area licence.

Where can I find out more about safe standing?

“Who are ya?”

Stand United is a fan-led campaign aiming to bring safe standing to Bramall Lane. It works alongside existing United fan groups, is an Associate member of the Football Supporters Association, is self-funded, and is entirely dependent on good will from Unitedites. It was founded in 2021 by United fan Joseph Clift. If you would like to be involved in the campaign, drop us an email or DM us on Twitter.