Standing Room Only ?

 It's good to hear that the Scottish Premier League (SPL) are to trial safe standing areas in some football stadiums from next season. It's highly unlikely that the same thing will happen in England though. Football fans don't matter in England. Particularly the sort of football fans who'd like to see a return to the terraces. If you support a  Premier League team and are glued to the Champions League on Sky  like a tattooed, track suit wearing fuckwit then the powers that be will happily pretend to listen to your views. At the same time they'll  try and take  all your cash. If, like me, you support Orient - or any other lower league club - you might as well fuck off and die.

The Conservatives have always had a deep distrust of football supporters, viewing them as little more than animals.  The game has been sanitised and politicians like to claim allegiance to a football club in order to court popularity. Their choice of club is usually predictably anodyne. Cameron is said to support Aston Villa along with Prince William, whilst George  Osbourne strikes me as too much of a mincer to be interested in football. The point is that few, if any MP's, will admit to supporting Millwall. Both the Conservatives and the Labour party are happy to see English football become the preserve of the few that can afford it.     

In the case of Scottish football it's all a bit different.  The Scots had to do something as Scottish football was headed for a particularly nasty economic meltdown. The SPL has nobody to blame but themselves for this state of affairs. They've allowed the Celtic and Rangers to call the shots and in doing so have impoverished the game. They're to be applauded however for trialling a safe standing system that the vast majority of fans support.

The economic imperative that's driven the change in the SPL's thinking doesn't really exist in England.  Lots of smaller clubs are struggling financially but the FA and the Premier League couldn't care less. Therefore,  the only way to  bring about the changes  in the game that I suspect many fans would like to see, is to vote with your feet. Don't subscribe to Sky, don't watch the Champions League and don't watch England games. There are several advantages to this approach. Firstly  it'll save you a fortune. Even better than the welcome financial gain is the thought that you won't have to watch total wankers  like John Terry and Rio Ferdinand attempt to play football.

If you really want to support football rather than the money men, try a  lower league or non league football match. I was recently invited by a friend to watch Leiston FC play Enfield Town in the Ryman League. The game took place at Leistons' Victory Road ground. It was only  eight quid to get in. You could stand and watch the game with a reasonably priced pint in your hand in a good atmosphere. The crowd on a chilly Saturday afternoon was around 300-400. The standard of the football wasn't all that bad either. Leiston won 2-1, with the Nathan Stone scoring an impressive winner. It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon and I'll be putting another eight quid through Leistons' turnstiles soon.