Top-flight clubs are more open to rail seating and its future is an agenda item at a Premier League meeting on Thursday

We are yet to hear chants of “stand up if you love safe standing” echo around Premier League grounds but there is undoubtedly a groundswell of opinion building behind an idea that even five years ago was habitually dismissed by clubs as a non-starter.

Survey after survey has shown the vast majority of fans welcome the idea of safe-standing areas – rows of so-called rail seating as popularised in the Bundesliga almost two decades ago and successfully introduced at Celtic Park for almost 3,000 fans this season – that are a world away from the unsafe, crumbling, concrete terraces of yore.

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But it is among the clubs that the mood has now begun to shift, and rail seating will be an agenda item at a Premier League meeting of all 20 clubs for the first time on Thursday. Their motivation is, unsurprisingly, not altogether altruistic and the slow gathering of momentum behind the idea is built on a number of factors.

One is football’s shifting economics. Less income is now derived from match-going fans but, paradoxically, they have never been more important. It is the high-octane atmosphere they create that is sold around the world in TV contracts that bring in £8.3bn over three years. As with the recent decisions to cap away-ticket prices at £30 and introduce rules that require clubs to place away fans close to the pitch, part of the appeal of rail seating – which effectively replaces each existing seat with a standing spot (and flip-up seat) behind a chest-high rail – is the possible beneficial effect on the atmosphere.

West Ham United’s David Gold – ironically, perhaps, the least able to do something to bring about safe standing given that his club do not own their stadium – has been the most vocal owner in favour but many more are privately supportive and would support some sort of trial. Arsène Wenger said recently he would welcome their introduction.

Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur have designed their mooted new stadiums to incorporate rail seating if it is allowed – construction timetables being another potential driver of progress. Crystal Palace, Watford, Sunderland, Swansea City and Burnley are among other clubs believed to be supportive.

The arguments made down the years by a small group of campaigners whose views have slowly become mainstream also have an inescapable practical logic. Ironically it is the status quo that is potentially more dangerous. Thousands stand, or spend the game being told not to, at Premier League grounds up and down the country every weekend.

That has led to incidences of cuts, bruises and worse when a goal is scored. And while at most grounds a situation has evolved by osmosis where standing is tolerated in some areas and not in others, the recent situation at West Ham’s new stadium showed that when the unspoken rules are not clear it can lead to heated exchanges and obscured views for the elderly and families.

The history of the debate has been well-rehearsed. All-seater stadia were recommended by the Taylor Report as a means of dragging the game into the modern age, while it also recommended in vain that ticket prices be pegged at a reasonable level. Taylor’s report also found unequivocally that poor crowd management and an unsafe stadium were responsible for the Hillsborough disaster, rather than standing per se.

Yet able to fill their grounds as a matter of course, wary of the legitimate issues around offending those affected by the Hillsborough disaster and – as is always the case in modern football – unable to see much immediate economic benefit, top-flight clubs have been content to let the naturally conservative instincts of the Premier League executive chairman, Richard Scudamore, set the tone. But even that shows signs of shifting and Scudamore has always insisted he will take his cue from the clubs.

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“We’re not immune to the fact that this is a topic and therefore it is in discussion with our clubs. They are all looking at the issue and at some point it will come around our table and we will see if there’s a point at which we might open up discussions with government to see what their view is on it,” he said last week. “It’s very much individual clubs sensing for themselves where they are with it and we may or may not facilitate that discussion in the weeks and months to come.”

Scudamore is of the view a change in the law would be required, but there is an alternative view that if flip-up rail seats were introduced on a one-for-one basis then that would not be the case if it was determined they could be defined as “seated accommodation”.

Either way, a firm view would have to be given by the government – in her sport strategy published last December the sports minister, Tracey Crouch, effectively parked the subject, but the DCMS is watching the implementation of safe standing by Celtic closely.

One sensitive area remains the continued opposition of the Hillsborough Family Support Group to the introduction of safe standing. Liverpool are understandably taking their lead from the HFSG but their supporters’ trust, Spirit of Shankly, has now started a consultation on the topic that will lead to a formal position.

The Hillsborough Justice Campaign has said it supports a “full and objective” debate. The issue was effectively, and rightly, parked during the Hillsborough inquest that belatedly delivered delayed justice to those who lost loved ones in the disaster but the debate now appears to be gingerly moving on.

Jon Darch, a long-time campaigner for safe standing who has taken his roadshow of rail seats around the country for years in an effort to build support, said he believed the Premier League meeting was a significant step forward.

Darch, who began as a campaigner but now stands to make a small commission on the sale of rail seats by a particular manufacturer if they are eventually brought in, said: “I am delighted to see that the Premier League will be discussing the possible introduction of rail seating.

“You know, they sometimes get a lot of criticism from fans, but credit must be given where credit is due. And things like the away fans’ fund, the £30 away-ticket cap, moving away fans closer to the pitch and now a willingness to look at safe standing seem to me to indicate a new desire to collaborate with organisations like the Football Supporters’ Federation to address issues about which thousands and thousands of fans feel so passionate.

“They’re therefore to be applauded for putting safe standing on their agenda and I look forward to hearing the outcome of their discussions.”

History suggests the Premier League is unlikely to move quickly. Perhaps the best that supporters of safe standing can hope for is a working group and a commitment to review the Celtic experience – Manchester City and Manchester United have sent delegations north of the border – at the end of the season. But there is a wider feeling abroad that it is an idea whose time has come and that if momentum can be maintained then ultimately the logic behind it will be inescapable.

Premier League clubs’ opinions on safe standing

Arsenal A matter for government

Bournemouth No comment

Burnley Supportive if legislation permits

Chelsea Will consider it if legislation permits

Crystal Palace In favour

Everton Not thinking about it at present

Hull City Supportive if legislation permits

Leicester City Open-minded

Liverpool No comment

Manchester City Open to the option

Manchester United In favour in principle

Middlesbrough No opinion until the parameters are clear

Southampton Unclear

Stoke City Open-minded

Sunderland Understood to be broadly supportive

Swansea City Supportive but final decision rests with the local council

Tottenham Hotspur Supportive if legislation permits

Watford In favour of trials

West Bromwich Albion In favour

West Ham United In favour