A few less than happy Toon supporters wrote in to Newcastle-Online as well as the forum following the news that our away allocation has been cut for Saturday’s game at Middlesbrough due to persistent standing at the Riverside. As promised I have collated the views and published them. Check out the responses.

P.S Thanks to all who wrote in and anyone who would like to take issue with this debate there is a website called Stand Up-Sit Down that you may find interesting.

Peter B - As the words of the Cocksparrer song “Take ‘em all, take ‘em all, put ‘em up against a wall and shoot ‘em. What I want to know is where is the evidence that the councils up and down the country rely upon, that standing is dangerous and more of a serious health risk than sitting. I note Charlton have had the common sense and backed down on cutting our allocation. Their view is that as long as the aisles and exits are clear then let the away fans stand. Oh! and the fact that the club can charge an away fan £30 a ticket where their own fans only pay about £15 and would not pay this much, as I found out from a Charlton fan last year. Keep standing lads! They will get sick before we do as the clubs will start to lose revenue.

Paul S - So this is why I didn’t get my usual ticket. I’m fuming and I fully agree with your rant. I’ve had no problems for the past 3 games at their ground with tickets and now I’ll have to watch it in the bar. Great!

Dave M - I expected this, especially from them lot. I stand and I will stand on Saturday as will most and so we should if we want to. The design of modern grounds should cater for those who want to stand. There should be one end housing standing fans with the rest remaining seated areas. It’s proved successful in Germany and other Countries yet over here we just get the usual safety crap. Stewards don’t help either. I have to stand because I get aches and pains in my legs and back and standing straight alleviates this, try telling that to a steward. They’ve killed the atmosphere at home now they want to do it away from home. Furthermore those who didn’t get tickets will just buy some in the home end and that could lead to trouble. It seems these people don’t have any brains. They are creating bigger problems by brushing this issue under the carpet.

Martin N - Well we were warned but that’s beside the point. What’s at issue here is the total ignorance towards fans up and down the country. Not content with repackaging our national sport as an entertainment package they don’t want you to enjoy it either. Like you said they are happy to take our hard earned money and get us drunk but we aren’t allowed to stand. Tell me - does every single fan when standing to celebrate a goal not contradict this ’safety’ aspect? What a naff excuse they have peddled. Hillsborough was years ago and that wasn’t caused because of standing but because of overcrowding, piss poor policing and shabby pens. It’s all very well having all seater stadiums but most of them are cramped. In their greed for an extra few quid they’ve bolted as many placky seats as possible to stands in order to cash in on higher numbers.

Unlike SJP where there is quite a bit leg room Boro’s stadium is so cramped you have to stand because you crack your knees off the seat in front of you and the piss poor views at the front make you stand up so you can see what’s going on. It’s like this at lots of away grounds. I can accept some fans want to sit, some older fans and some younger fans and that standing can cause obstruction but please this ’safety’ spin is bull. I went to every away game last season and I never seen anyone being crushed or anyone being hurt because of standing. I saw a lot of fans injure themselves through the drink but they wouldn’t stop selling us peeve now would they?

Fans will keep standing and I’m not going to stop standing, not on Saturday not ever. The day they throw me out for standing I’ll listen to the match on the radio or in the pub and spend my money on wor lass. So will other fans. That’ll fuck them off. If fans can stand in Germany why not in England? If fans want to sit, fine, give them the first couple of rows and let those who want to stand do so behind them. We put enough into the game for there to be the funds to pay for this kind of system.

Tossers!

Bring Back Standing - Typical crap from people who have probably never went to a match in their life. Standing isn’t a problem it’s the state of football that’s the real problem. What next? Leaflets telling us to keep the noise down. What a joke our game has become and those who run it make me sick. Instead of finding a way to allow those of us who want and do stand they just tell us to stop it and when we don’t they stop us going. Ridiculous. It’s getting like America where you sit down, put on your foam hand, coo over the cheerleaders and sing along to the pig-bag music…oh that’s the Riverside.

STAND UP IF YOU LOVE THE TOON! What would happen if everyone in the ground stood up? Would they tell us to sit down and if we didn’t then threaten to ban us all? They would go bust in a week. That’s what we should all do, let them know that we have all the power, that we are the ones who put them in their desks. We may be rivals but our game is being destroyed by people who haven’t the foggiest. They treat us like consumers well I’m not happy with the service. This stinks and football should be ashamed.

Gary W - I’m 62 and standing for long periods can become intensely tiring at my age let me tell you but for more sprightly fans standing is a tradition that is every much a part of the game as scoring goals is - the thing that gets us off our seats. Clubs and those in authority need to look at this situation and address the concerns of a large group of people who all have differing needs. I for example need to sit and having someone stand up in front of you is a plain nuisance. This goes for kids too.

Long gone are the days when kids got passed down to the front and if clubs and authorities aren’t careful long gone will be the days of enjoying seeing your club away from home. I see no harm in allowing fans who want to stand to do just that provided it isn’t at the expense of those who want to sit and that is the balance that clubs and those in authority need to look at instead of a general sweep of the brush that doesn’t do the game we all love any good at all. The home team loses out in revenue, people lose out on a pay packet and a large percentage of fans lose out on seeing their team away from home. The most enjoyable experience for any football fan. Regards, Gary from Chopwell.

Asim - Why don’t Sky just take over the pictures and screen matches and do away with stadiums - turn them into fields for cows or something because they are no use if we can’t enjoy the match. SJP is dead and so is most stadiums in the PL. I blame money and they will keep punishing true fans in the name of money. It’s got nothing to do with safety they just don’t want blokes going to the footy, blokes who swear, drink and have a good time. They want sheep who sit in their chair, chewing their gum, drinking their water.

We must take a stand and get back our game by refusing to bow down to these pen pushing idiots who hide behind safety to stop thousands of fans going to the match. How dare they stop fans from following their team, how dare they take away our game that we have built with our love, money and loyalty. Not them - us. What would they all do if we all decided to stay at home to watch it on Sky? What am I talking about that’s what they want so they can give our seats to sheep. Where’s me sheer’s…

HttPaul - We are currently obliged, supposedly, to sit at Premiership football matches. I can understand how supporters want to get behind the team by singing and shouting - it’s just not the same when we sit down. On the other hand, my 72 year old step father doesn’t come with me to away matches anymore because he’s not up to standing or constantly standing up/sitting down for 90 mins. nor can the people in the rows at the end or back see the game because some stadia (eg Chelsea) are not designed for people to stand and see. Nor can the people with disabilities see the game properly at Charlton because of the people who continue to stand in front of the gantry they are in. Recognise that standing whilst fun for most, cuts out the fun for many…so I vote we sit in designated seating areas and lobby the authorities to reinstate safe standing areas.

Gattuso - Should the local council dictate how you can use your property? NO, because that is fascism, if Boro FC demand fans should remain seated then as you are on their property you should respect their decision. I don’t see a problem with getting off your seat and standing, but an all standing area would be bring back the possibility of a rush and crush.

Hully - So our allocation for the Boro game has been reduced for the so called crime of standing up, well it looks like the fan of yesterday who always stood up at away matches is being forced out or made to sit in a ground like a stuffed puppet, apart from the fact it costs a fortune to watch the Mags home and away they now want to reduce our allocation, for supporters like myself (and there are many of us) who would rather follow the Mags away from home due to the chronic lack of passion and atmosphere at St. James’ Park this is another kick in the teeth, as football is big news at the moment and in general football grounds are full week in week out I hate to think what will happen when the bubble bursts, it will happen and I will put money on it next season at St. James’ Park that any fan who wants a Season Ticket will be able to get one due to people not renewing. Football clubs have to listen to their fans otherwise they will drive them away from the grounds, it’s a passionate game and not one were you can just sit there like a zombie.

We have all seen the recent atmosphere at our ground due to things like this and it will only get worse, clubs must realise that fans views must be taken in account. I have lost count how many times people who I know say attending St. James’ Park for a match is becoming like a choir and that they are thinking of not going back due to costs, heavy handed stewards, atmosphere etc. Put it this way with all the games nearly always on TV these days why do we need to go to the games (that cost a fortune) when you can STAND yes STAND in the pub and watch the match surrounded by a great atmosphere in great surrounding? P.S After watching Rangers fans at the recent home game and all of them standing up what happens at their matches, I bet they can stand without getting into trouble. Probably due to the fact clubs would suffer if their allocation was reduced, its a good pay day when Rangers travel to away games and clubs rely on that extra income. As our game (the Premiership) is popular now this does not mean it will always be like this.

Sparks - Standing in stands which have seats bolted onto old terraces is more safer than seating in my opinion. As Nufc.com pointed out these stands like the Charlton away stand are incredibly cramped and if an emergency happened many would die. The views sitting down are awful, that’s why most people stand up. Standing isn’t dangerous what caused Hillsborough was overcrowding, a poorly organised police and badly designed stands, there have been no problems in standing area’s in the past decade. If the stands have plenty of leg room and good views there are no reasons to stand up however if this is not the case then fans have a right to stand.

Billy t’fish - First lets make one thing clear I love standing. I agree about Charlton, Pompey et al being awful to sit. Trust me I know I’m 6′ 2″ tall and 18 stone these seats aren’t built for me But this is now a case of just using our brains regardless of the rights and wrongs of the standing debate. We’ve been warned for years that our allocation was going to be cut and took no notice so we can’t whinge now. Last year at Charlton we got a polite notice requesting we sit explaining Man Utd had had their allocation cut but we had a a second chance. Result: Some muppets in front of me insisted not only on standing but making a point of standing 2 deep in their row and ignoring the stewards. Who do you think will be squealing now they can’t get tickets?

Cla1dwa - At the end of the day you have to think about fans of, for instance, many lower division teams, as well as rugby league and union fans, who still have to stand at games, as do many fans on the continent. the problem comes when you are allocated a specific place in a seated area as opposed to just being put into a stand. This means that if everyone stands, the older and younger/smaller spectators cannot just make their way to the front, which would have been the case. Therefore, because they have seats, its only fair to use them so that others around you can see.