Opinion | Return to standing at games an option
Rail seats are in use in the US and Europe and a return to them would not roll back British football to the hooliganism of the 80s
"The gladiators enter the arena, the field of praise - Saturday's weather perfect for the occasion." So opens a short documentary by the BBC news programme Panorama, made in 1964. The presenter was at Anfield to report on the sociological phenomena aka The Kop, the famous terracing where the Liverpool fans stood, swayed and sung their hearts out - all 28,000 of them.
It's a spell-binding 4:36-minute black-and-white film showing the last game of the season against Arsenal. Liverpool won 5-0 and were crowned 1963-64 First Division champions. Go to YouTube and type in "Kop Panorama". You'll never forget it. You'll be enchanted at how supporters - especially Liverpudlians - once supported their teams before football lost its innocence.
Unlike the modern game, there was no army of eagle-eyed stewards in day-glo jackets pouncing on the long list of banned behaviour, including turning the air blue in frustration at another miss or goal conceded, or at the wayward whistle of the blind referee. There was no massive police presence, CCTV, fencing, Perspex screens, chicken wire or netting.
There was no menace other than good old-fashioned sporting rivalry, adoration and banter - though the presenter notes the desire to win "is an agonising one", and there are some "adulatory, cruel and bawdy comments voiced at the opposition, southerners and police".
Half a century on, the sanctimonious naysayers claim football is entering its second dark age. Proof, if ever it was needed, was to be found at the Etihad Stadium last weekend, they cried this week. The coin-throwing cavemen, the racists and pitch invaders are signs the game has rewound to the nasty 1980s. This is somewhat hysterical and mostly untrue. The modern game has never been so gentrified, tolerant and safe. The doom merchants and puritans clearly don't understand derby games. They will always be a bitter affair - that's what sets them apart.
And football will never be a haven for sanctimony. Football is tribal by nature. You'll find only discarded burger wrappers, empty paper cups and a dropped scarf or two if you come to a stadium looking for the moral high-ground. But help is hand for those seeking yesteryear's utopia. A new campaign to revive a crucial element of what created that magical 1960s atmosphere is gathering momentum - standing up to support your team.