Safe Standing – write to your MP

Labour MP Roger Godsiff has tabled an Early Day Motion calling for safe standing areas at football grounds. Basically, the more MPs signatures it collects the more likely the government will be to listen, so write to your own MP. (Links at the bottom of the page)

Dear MP,

I am writing to ask you to consider an Early Day Motion on the issue of safe standing areas in football grounds.

Many fans in football stadia stand up anyway, regardless of what the stewards tell them. This affects people who are less able to stand, as their view on the game is blocked. Therefore, having a standing area for fans who want to stand, as well as seating for those that don’t benefits all fans.

Another problem of standing in seated stadia, is that many football grounds seated areas are not designed for standing. As football stewards cannot prevent fans standing, a better option would be to have safe areas for standing. Like the home of Hanover 96 in Germany – http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&hl=en&v=apX5V1IJCW4&gl=US.

Standing areas in football grounds will increase capacity, lower ticket prices and take away the “library” atmosphere of many football stadia.

Yours sincerely,

Gooner Girl on Tour

1. Petition for Safe Standing – http://www.fsf.org.uk/petitions/safestanding.php?page=about&id=
2. Write to your MP – http://fsfsafestandingcampaign.appspot.com/mp/write

West Ham: Just outside the Olympic Bubble

So, back on the Away Day road and back to travel reality from the surreal days of the 2012 Olympic Games when all underground lines ran without engineering works. The District Line was closed for fixing stuff, so Dad and me made our way to Upton Park via the North London overground line and Stratford. That station was nicely tarted up to make the IOC believe that we were investing in infrastructure, but just a couple of stops away, West Ham, Plaistow and Upton Park looked slightly marginalised by the Olympic party.

Arriving at the ground a few minutes after kick off – due to the Hammersmith and City Line moving like a snail, and West Ham not giving proper directions for the away fans – we took our seats, I mean standing places, behind a group of drunks who were singing loudly (and got steadily drunker throughout the match). The Arsenal Away Crew were in their usual good voice, with a new song dedicated to Santi Cazorla (to the tune of The Vieira Song, and pronounced incorrectly).

West Ham took the lead, and the home support perked up a bit which lead several Gooners around me to make that sign that relates to masturbation in the direction of the East Stand. The Arsenal players kept calm and pushed for the equaliser, which came when Lukas Podolski crossed to Olivier Giroud to score his first league goal. Emulating Thierry Henry in taking eight or nine games to net the debut. This lead to another new song;

“Na, na, nananana, nananana, Giroud.” (I don’t need to tell you that tune, unless you live in a cave with earplugs)

Then it was half time, and I attempted to get a drink. However, the downstairs area at Upton Park is not big enough to hold a few hundred fans desperate for a half time beer. The nearer I got to the refreshment bar, the more I became squashed between men twice my size, eventually I gave up and went back to my seat.

The drunks arrived back as the second half was kicking off, with bottles in hand (something an officious steward pulled one out of the crowd for). After a nerve-wrecking few minutes of West Ham attack, it became clear that Andy Carroll wasn’t going to hit the barn door, no matter how many paces he was from goal. We didn’t panic and left the defending to the Big Friendly German and his telescopic legs.

Theo Walcott came on and was released down the flank. One on one with Jaaskelainen, the ball left his foot, hit the back of the net and one of the drunks fell on me. You can’t jump around celebrating so easily when a fourteen stone drunk has landed on your leg. A few minutes later, Cazorla was in plenty of space outside the area and fired in. The drunk fell over again, knocking me and Dad over and breaking one of West Ham’s cheap plastic seats. As the match entered the second minute of stoppage time, we got as far away from the drunks as possible, just in case they did any more falling around breaking things.

As the final whistle blew, we left Upton Park trying to avoid the horse shit on the pavements.

Manchester City: A Study in Modern Football

One thing struck me as the train approached Manchester – the city appears to be copying London.  With Piccadilly and Oxford Road (okay, not Oxford Street, but the Mancs couldn’t be to blatant, could they) stations, and the fairground in the centre which appears to be a smaller version of Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland.  While outwardly hating London and all it’s people, Manchester is secretly trying to be London of the North. The imitation spreads to football, as Manchester City (Nouveau Riche of the Premier League) attempt to copy Arsenal in every thing but football style.  Apart from buying ex-Arsenal, they’ve named their stadium and splashed their shirts with the name of a Middle Eastern Airline.  But, where Arsenal have chosen an airline that most people in England have heard of, tacky City chose an airline called Etihad – which may well be the Middle Eastern Ryanair for all City’s class.

The similarities end there.  Where Arsene Wenger would take £30 million and buy a whole new team (he would excel at fantasy football), Manchester City would take the £30 million and spend it on one grossly over-valued player.  And that is the sorry state of the premier league today.  Over-valued and over-rated players bought by a man who’s made his money exploiting oil resources in [insert country here], so has plenty to throw around at a once mediocre football team.  Yes, remember when City were quite happy to survive in the Premier League and their fans were jokingly referred to as “the blue 90% of Manchester”?  Well, now they are just like their near neighbours, but with blue shirts.

The Etihad is not by any means a bad stadium, but on approach I could not tell if it was the ground or a car showroom.  My Dad thought it was a car park.  Either way, it just sums up the way football is going – turning into a bland, corporate and soulless affair.  On the front of the upper tier of the East Stand is a sign that reads “Manchester City thanks you, Sheikh Mansoor”.  Yes, it is nice to thank the man who rescued you from the relegation battle, but my first impression was that it smacked of an autocratic regime with a leader who tries to elevate himself to the status of God.  My next thought was that the book “The Kilburn Social Club” wasn’t so much a frivolous romp, but a satire on the mess football’s got itself into.  Then I went back to abusing the City fans about playing on Channel Five on Thursdays.

The Arsenal away fans deserve credit – especially as the home fans get rather a lot of stick for being a little quiet – these faithful few thousand who travel over land, sea and Leicester, through rain, snow and Wigan, cheering on the Arsenal throughout the match and deriding City fans for not making too much noise.  It was the Arsenal fans who were still singing, even after City scored and when it looked like the officials were going to conspire to give us absolutely nothing from the match.  The City fans sat silently during the match like they were watching the Wimbledon final at the particularly tense moment where Roger Federer is serving for the championship.  This is not just an Arsenal or a City thing, but it appears to be a trend among the home supporters in English football stadia – sit quietly and only cheer when they score.  The attitude is “Football is for watching, not encouraging on”.  Also, the travelling Gooners stood through the match, in a rebellion against football convention and the stewarding at Highbury, perhaps.  Whether there is a correlation between standing and the level of noise made is one for the mathematicians to figure out.  As I’m no good at any maths above times tables, I’ll leave that one to you.

As I left Manchester on the London-bound train, I noticed that three City fans were sitting across the aisle from me.  The Blue 90% of Manchester is moving towards London.  They’re becoming more like United by the day.  Although, I don’t blame them for leaving Manchester.  As we sung in one chant – “You live in a Sh*thole”.