Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
STAND UP IF YOU LOVE FOOTBALL...
Top flight fans can cheer on terraces for 1st time in 30 yrs
STANDING at football games is set to return to stadiums at top flight teams after a 30-year ban.
Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Cardiff had applications approved for a safe standing trial after it was outlawed following the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy.
Chelsea’s Premier League game against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge on January 2 will mark the return of spectators on terraces.
Yesterday Hillsborough campaigners said it was “right to move with the times”. Ex-hillsborough Families Support Group
TIME chair Margaret Aspinall, 74, who lost her son James, 18, as a result of the tragedy, said: “I have no issues. I’ve changed my opinion.
“If this is what fans want, they are entitled to it. I think it is right as long as there is proper monitoring of the crowd.
“I’m sure lessons have been learned since Hillsborough, especially by Liverpool Football Club.”
Ninety-seven people died following the crush at the Sheffield Wednesday ground before Liverpool versus Nottingham Forest on April 15, 1989.
In 2016, an inquest ruled the fans had been unlawfully killed and that no role was played by the supporters.
Since 1994, stadiums of first and second tier English clubs have been allseater. Margaret said husband Jim, 79, “couldn’t face another game” afterwards.
But she added: “Why should we have an issue? I felt very different years ago, after what I lost... but times move on.”
Sports minister Nigel Huddleston said: “The time is right to properly trial safe standing ahead of a decision on a widespread roll-out.”
Spurs chairman Daniel Levy said the club was “delighted” to adopt the move.