Javea Shrimper
Guest
Reading through the Shrimpers' Trust liaison meeting notes, I have come to the conclusion that Geoffrey King somewhat misses the point about persistent standing in the North Stand.
Despite the Trust representative informing him that "our experience at away matches was that stewards kept a very tight leash on standing", King appears to dismiss the issue by claiming that "it was very difficult getting away fans to sit in the North Stand".
I'm sorry but that's absolute crap!
It is extremely simple to get away fans to sit in the North Stand. You do what virtually every other club with an all-seater stadium does; threaten those who won't sit down with expulsion. And remove those who still refuse to do so. It's extremely simple. Consider stadiums like St. Mary's in Southampton where those fans (home AND away) "guilty" of persistent standing are immediately removed from the stadium. No questions. Following the Shrimpers, we've seen the same thing at places like Kenilworth Road, Nene Park, and Hull City.
I don't necessarily condone much of what the 'F Block' gets up to but their (and the Trust's) complaint about lack of consistency in dealing with the standing issue is something that King seems to dismiss rather too blase for my liking. In this case, blaming the FLA is too easy. There has been far more obvious persistent standing at grounds in the Premiersh*te (where whole sections of the ground stand for lengthy periods of time) and I'm sure the FLA would make more of a statement by shutting Anfield's Kop Stand or the North Stand at Old Trafford than they would by shutting the West Stand at Roots Hall. Or would they really be that daft?
WS
Despite the Trust representative informing him that "our experience at away matches was that stewards kept a very tight leash on standing", King appears to dismiss the issue by claiming that "it was very difficult getting away fans to sit in the North Stand".
I'm sorry but that's absolute crap!
It is extremely simple to get away fans to sit in the North Stand. You do what virtually every other club with an all-seater stadium does; threaten those who won't sit down with expulsion. And remove those who still refuse to do so. It's extremely simple. Consider stadiums like St. Mary's in Southampton where those fans (home AND away) "guilty" of persistent standing are immediately removed from the stadium. No questions. Following the Shrimpers, we've seen the same thing at places like Kenilworth Road, Nene Park, and Hull City.
I don't necessarily condone much of what the 'F Block' gets up to but their (and the Trust's) complaint about lack of consistency in dealing with the standing issue is something that King seems to dismiss rather too blase for my liking. In this case, blaming the FLA is too easy. There has been far more obvious persistent standing at grounds in the Premiersh*te (where whole sections of the ground stand for lengthy periods of time) and I'm sure the FLA would make more of a statement by shutting Anfield's Kop Stand or the North Stand at Old Trafford than they would by shutting the West Stand at Roots Hall. Or would they really be that daft?
WS