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Not sure. For a start, away fans won't suddenly sit down. Just a guess, but I'd suggest it will be more self-policed.

I'm not being pedantic, I'm being clear. You cannot be arrested for standing at a football match - it is not illegal. However, you can be ejected. It is not a police matter. Football clubs have a responsibility to ensure everyone is sitting down, where they can. They also have a legal...

Nearly. You can't be arrested for standing.

Nope. The Secretary of State has the power to intervene, effectively holding the trump card over all considerations.

They're not turning a blind eye. It's just that, as any safety officer will tell you, getting everyone to sit down is basically impossible and impractical. As soon as some perpetrators are carted out - just for standing - it creates further problems down the line. The SGSA's answer is to...

YOU know this. I know this. EVERYONE on here knows this. But this is a government which doesn't deal in evidence from experts or from those who've experienced these things, largely. They don't even consider that which is in place at Celtic, Dortmund etc. - the very thing the clubs are asking...

You don't have principals [sic]. If that is your insular, snotty attitude, then find out for yourself. The information is out there.

So you wish to follow the unenforceable sanction which the government / SGSA would like to impose, against the advice of safety officers up and down the country? Got you. By the way, it's not against the law to stand at football matches. Even in the Premier League.

Well, yes. Most would. But the (misplaced) narrative about 'tanked up hordes' - as recited by the unapologetic truth-denier in Sir Bernard Ingham - still holds some traction among the airhead MPs. So not only would we have to prove ourselves good people when standing up (like we've been doing...

Not one? None whatsoever?

Clubs are contributing to the debate. Not only via social media etc., but through the Football League and the Premier League (who are representatives of the 72 and the 20 respectively in this instance) - both of whom want to see safe standing trialled.

It's a totally loaded agenda. Getting football fans to behave with a certain level of coercion. At least, that's what the government intends.

The government - or rather, the SGSA - won't cite Celtic or Dortmund as satisfactory examples of this system working, because they're not in England and the culture is different. They have yet to provide any evidence to back up this assertion.

It was. But it's more prudent to fight the battles which can be won. Safe standing is probably the easier of the two. There is a link between beer and misbehaviour; there is little or none between standing and misbehaviour. For the former, it would need careful consideration; for the latter...

Sadly, not even on the agenda as far as the FSF is concerned. They have it somewhere bumping along the pipeline much further back, but safe standing is the priority right now, and all the efforts are being put into that basket. After that, assuming safe standing is brought in, I suspect...

Yes. The Albion was the first club to do this, and did so very publicly. They invited fans to the stadium to discuss safe standing issues. It was broadcast as a live web-stream.

The Government's stance is that they see no reason to change the law. The Football Offences Act was drafted in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster - indeed, despite the Hillsborough disaster. The eventual outcome of the Hillsborough Inquiry 27 years later has meant that - in law at least - the...

If he ever did, he has since recanted. Everything he has done and said goes against what you have said about him there.