Confirmed: Celtic to pioneer rail seating

Following a meeting on June 9, 2015, of Celtic’s ‘Safety Advisory Group’, it has been confirmed by the club that they will be going ahead with the installation of rail seats at Celtic Park.

This landmark announcement means that Celtic will be the UK pioneers of this form of spectator accommodation, already widely used elsewhere, in countries including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Norway and Hungary. The news comes 1,453 days after the roadshow’s first of three visits to ‘Paradise’ (pictured) between May 2011 and January 2014 to help club officials explain the merits of rail seating to the authorities, media and fans.

The club’s interest in rail seating had, it appears, initially been sparked by supporters group the Celtic Trust, who in the spring of 2011 let it be known that they would be tabling a motion at the football club’s autumn AGM asking that it conduct a feasibility study into creating a safe standing area at Celtic Park. That, it seems, prompted the club to contact us and the rest, as they say, is now history.

In December 2011, the SPL met and resolved to permit clubs to run trials of safe standing, on the proviso that they gained consent from their local authority and police force. Many local authority safety officials and a good number of police officers duly had the chance to look at rail seats during a further visit by the roadshow to Scotland in February 2012, when we visited 7 grounds in 5 days.

The subsequent upheavals in Scottish football, in particular the troubles at Rangers and the restructuring of the league system, then caused something of a hiatus in proceedings.

All the time, however, Celtic were pressing on, submitting formal proposals to the council, having an ongoing dialogue with the police and, in January 2014, hosting the annual conference of the Football Safety Officers’ Association of Scotland, at which the roadshow was again present to help spread the word about rail seats (like those at Wolfsburg pictured here).

Chief Executive Peter Lawwell said around that time: “We feel there is a new vibrancy in football that has come from Europe and is now in the UK. It's an energy and youthfulness and the safest way of being able to manage that is through safe standing. These are new systems that… are extremely safe and we are very keen to explore that at Celtic Park.”Following several further meetings of the club’s Safety Advisory Group and rigorous examination of the club’s proposals, the authorities have now given the go-ahead.

One of the first to comment on the news was a spokesperson for the Celtic Trust:

"We at the Celtic Trust are delighted that this proposal, which we originally put to Celtic over 4 years ago is now going to happen. The provision of both seated and standing areas to accommodate different tastes will make Celtic Park an even more attractive and exciting place than ever."

The club has previously announced that the area earmarked for the rail seating is a corner of the lower tier, embracing blocks 110-112. During the season ticket renewal process in spring 2014 and again in 2015 fans were asked to register their interest in safe standing. Now that this is to become reality those that did so will, no doubt, be at the top of the list for tickets in the remodelled area. With an anticipated lead time of a several months, it may now not be until next summer that the green rail seats get installed in these blocks, but the fans there will undoubtedly see it as worth the wait – after all, what’s a few more months after all the years of waiting?!

Well done, Celtic!