Safe Standing Fan Roundtable

Today it was my pleasure to welcome fan representatives from across England and Wales to discuss safe standing.
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Safe standing is a hotly debated subject amongst the footballing community. A petition was set up by Owen Riches (an excellent campaigner that I have had the pleasure of meeting) which received over 112,000 signatures and now the motion is to be debated in Parliament on the 25th June.

Ahead of this debate, I launched an online survey and today held a roundtable discussion with football fan groups and supporter’s trusts representatives to canvass opinions on safe standing at football matches. This allowed points to be raised by the people that know their stadia the best: the fans. Over 60 supporter’s trusts members attended the roundtable and my online survey received over 5000 responses.
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From making football matches more inclusive experiences to improving atmosphere and fan safety, fans made clear that they believe there are significant advantages of safe standing. I look forward to continuing to consult across the footballing community on this issue as we approach the Parliamentary debate on 25th June.