Football supporters and standing
Resource: Football Supporters Europe survey completed March 2013
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Country / Are standing areas provided at top-flight games? / Is standing in seated areas allowed at top-flight games? / Are standing areas provided at lower league games? / If standing is banned, is it enforced by clubs/police/stewards?Anything else you would like to add?
Austria / Yes / Yes / Yes / N/A
BosniaHerzegovina / Yes / Yes / Yes / Not applicable (standing is not banned). There are standing areas in almost all stadiums. Even the ones without standing areas allow standing on seats.
Belgium / Yes / Yes / Yes / Fans resolve problems relating to persistent standing in seated areas via self-regulation with standing fans moving to the back of the stand or swapping seats.
Bulgaria / Yes / Yes / Yes / N/A
Croatia / No / Yes / Yes / No
CzechRepublic / No / Yes / Yes / No. League 1 - seats everywhere (no strict rule that you must sit) and in home/away sectors people normally stand.League 2 - not necessary to have seats everywhere and people also stand in home/away sector, with or without seats.
Denmark / Yes / Yes / Yes / N/A
England / No / No / Yes / Yes
France / Yes / Yes / Yes / No, standing areas only exist in old grounds but recently built grounds are all-seater.
Germany / Yes / Yes / Yes / When there is persistent standing in seated areas fans usually resolve potential conflicts via self-regulation (e.g. standing fans group in the last row, seats are changed etc).
Greece / No / Yes / Yes / Should any conflicts occur they are resolved via self-regulation (e.g. standing fans gather so they do not bother sitting fans, seats are changed etc). There are no official standing areas and stadiums are all seated so fans often stand on seats. Lower leagues are not obliged to have a seated stadium so standing is allowed although the attendances are really low. Club stewards supposedly enforce sitting; the police have nothing to do with it.
Hungary / Yes / Yes / Yes / No – standing areas only exist at old grounds and not in recently built stadia.
Ireland / Yes / Yes and No / Yes / At Ireland international games, although we have an all-seater stadium, standing is permitted in the designated singing section. Standing elsewhere is not permitted and is enforced by stewards. At club matches in Ireland standing is not banned but it depends on the club as to whether standing in seated areas is permitted.
Israel / No / Yes / Yes / No
Italy / No / No / Yes / No
Latvia / Yes / Yes / Yes / Persistent standing in seated areas is resolved via self-regulation (standing fans group together in the last row or swap seats etc).
Luxembourg / Yes / Yes / Yes / N/A
Netherlands / Yes (in theory) / Yes / Yes / Having standing areas in the first division stadia is theoretically allowed but regulations to build standing areas in the top-flight are so strict that literally no club bothers to install standing areas but rather allows standing in seated areas – e.g. Ajax. There is no policy on enforcement in certain parts of the stadiums where fans are known to stand. Stadium bans can be enforced if fanskeep on standing in seated areas after being talked to by stewards.
Northern Ireland / Yes / Yes / Yes / N/A
Norway / Yes / Yes / Yes / N/A
Poland / No / No / No (in theory) / Stewards are the first level, they have the right to demand that you take a seat. If you refuse, you commit a crime, because disobedience to a steward’s requests is a criminal offence. ‘Persistent standing’ in seated areas is limited to ‘fanatic’ blocks and the away section. In theory you can no longer stand at any ‘mass event’ but due to poor facilities and insufficient resources it's rarely enforced so long as evacuation paths are kept clear. Clubs and fans are working together to change the law in relation to standing areas.
Portugal / No / Yes / Yes / No
Scotland / No / No / Yes / Yes
Slovakia / Yes / Yes / Yes / No. Old first division grounds can have ‘exceptional permissions’ to allow standing areas.
Spain / No / Yes / Yes / The policeare responsible for any ‘anomalies’ within the stadium but there is no enforcement and no explicit ban on standing either in national law or professional league regulation. Fans usually stand in some parts of the stadium.
Sweden / Yes / Yes / Yes / N/A
Switzerland / Yes / Yes / Yes / Fans usually resolve potential conflicts with self-regulation (if you want to ‘persistently stand’ in the seats you would be expected to group in the back of the stand or swap seats).
Turkey / No / Yes / Yes / No – it’s all-seater but fans stand (there are no special standing areas). Fans are allowed to stand at almost every match and in every league. Standing is not banned, and there is no legal regulation on standing or not.
Ukraine / No / Yes / Yes / No, except for the Donbass Arena (Shakhtar Donetsk). In ultras sections there’s usually no enforcement to sit. If fans stand in an area where other supporters prefer to sit the stewards may ask them to sit down. At club matches there are ‘traditional’ areas where fans go to stand (in seated areas) but there is no concept of standing areas in Ukraine.
Wales(answers relate to Welsh football league) / Yes / No / Yes / Standing is allowed in most grounds. There are a few athletics stadiums with no standing areas and the stewards have tried to force fans to sit down. Most lower league grounds have ‘hard’ standing around the pitch, not much more than a path really on two sides.The majority of clubs struggle to get 200 supporters so crowd control is hardly ever a problem.