Scudamore: make standing a "local choice"

June 2018. Premier League executive chairman Richard Scudamore has said for the first time that he thinks clubs should be able to decide for themselves whether to offer safe standing at their ground.

Talking a week after an EFL survey of 30,000 football supporters showed 94% backing for safe standing and a day ahead of the Labour Party making support for its introduction formal party policy, Scudamore said:

“We are looking to make sure we’ve got all evidence and all the data to feed into government on a review they’ve pretty much committed to holding.“I think we will look to work with that review in order to create the position where our clubs have choice – which is a local choice based on their own stadia, their own circumstances, in order to enable them to, if they wish, to be able to offer alternatives to all-seat [stadiums].”

With the FA also understood to be supportive of the introduction of safe standing areas, this means that for the first time ever football is speaking with one voice on the issue: the fans, the Premier League, the EFL and the FA all in unison in their support for safe standing.

Now it just needs the Government to listen.