Responsibility for the safety of spectators lies at all times with the ground management.

• Risk Assessments in Football Stadiums
• Fire Legislations within Football Grounds
• Major Incident Management Structure
• Disability Discrimination Act and Football
• Football Stewarding
• Football Stadium Contingency Planning
• Policing Football Grounds
• Accommodating Visiting Football Supporters
• Alcohol in Football Stadiums
• First aid and Medical Arrangements
• Major incident planning
• Alternative events in Sporting Grounds

Introduction

As with any industry, the management of a Football Club needs to recognise that safety standards should reflect a safety culture at the sports ground. A positive attitude demonstrated by the management is therefore crucial in ensuring that safety policies are carried out effectively and willingly.

Representatives of the local authority together with the local police, fire and ambulance officers, will advise management on how to discharge its responsibility, and, in certain circumstances, may require measures to be taken in order to achieve reasonable safety standards.

Management also has a responsibility to take all necessary precautions to safeguard spectators against the effects of accidents in, or originating from, the activity on the pitch.

Initially, the Management will have to make an assessment of how many spectators can be safely accommodated within the ground itself. This assessment is the most important step towards the achievement of reasonable safety.

As most football stadiums are divide into sections, the factors the management will have to consider will include:

• The entry capacity of the section
  The entry capacity is the number of people who can pass through all the turnstiles
  and other entry points serving the section, within a period of one hour.
• The holding capacity of the section
  This is the number of people that can be safely accommodated in each section.
• The exit capacity of the section
  This is the number of people that can safely exit from the viewing area of the section
  under normal conditions.
• The emergency evacuation capacity
  This is determined by the emergency evacuation time, which is based largely on the
  level of risk of the section and its associated emergency evacuation routes.
• The final capacity
  Having established all the above figures, the final capacity of the section, and thence
  of the whole ground.

Risk assessments in football stadiums

Management must carry out site-specific risk assessments for all events including any ancillary activities. Risk assessment should not impose a burden but should encourage the formulation of practical and systematic action plans to reduce the level of risk to spectators.

Fire safety legislation within football grounds

As with any business, the defining piece of Legislation relating to fire in football stadiums is the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety)Order 2005. The Club must plan, organise, control, monitor and review the necessary preventive and protective measures and record these arrangements in writing.

The Fire (Scotland) Act 2005, as amended, and the Fire Safety (Scotland)Regulations 2006, introduced similar requirements in Scotland. In carrying out fire risk assessments, ground management should refer to the DCLG publication Fire Safety Risk Assessment – Large Places of Assembly.

In one of the worst fire disasters at a Football Club, the Bradford City fire, the large number of casualties were caused by the intensity and rapid development of the fire, by exits being locked and by the available exits being insufficient to enable the spectators to escape.

It is important that clubs balance the capacity of fans the ground will accommodate with the capability to get them out of the ground safely in the event of an emergency such as a fire.

Major incident management structure

Across the UK there has been widespread adoption within the emergency services and local authorities of a three-tier management structure for dealing with major incidents. This recognises that in very serious situations there may be a need to co-ordinate the handling of an incident at operational, tactical and strategic levels. Many event organisers already use this model and clubs should consult with services in their area to see whether it is appropriate for them to adopt it.

Disability discrimination act and football

 Football clubs have duties under the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, which requires them to take reasonable measures to ensure that they are not discriminating against disabled people. Management has a continuing and evolving duty to meet the requirements of the Act. It must also be aware that this duty applies to everyone, whether paid or voluntary, providing services on its behalf.

Football Stewarding

Staffing numbers will vary considerably at each ground, according to its size and configuration. However, experience has shown that by ensuring the availability of staff for the following categories, management should meet the needs of most matches or events:

• supervisory staff: for example, the deputy safety officer, chief steward(s) and supervisors.
• static posts: for example, crowd monitoring points, exits, activity area perimeter gates, escalators and other strategic points or areas.
• mobile posts; typically a ratio of one steward per 250 of the anticipated attendance. This ratio should be increased to up to one per 100 of the anticipated attendance where the risk assessment shows a need for a higher level of safety management, for example at a high profile event or where there are large numbers of children or where there is a likelihood that large numbers of spectators will not comply with safety instructions.
• specialist stewards: for example, for areas used by children or spectators with disabilities.
• additional stewards: if needed for deployment in particular circumstances or for particular events.

Other staff, such as car park attendants and turnstile operators, may also be deployed for stewarding and other safety duties.

Football stadium contingency planning

Club management should assess the risk of any incident occurring at the stadium which might prejudice public safety or disrupt normal operations; for example, fire, power cuts, bomb threats, delayed starts or crowd disorder.

Such incidents often arise with little or no warning and may not be capable of being dealt with by the management operating under normal conditions. Management should therefore prepare contingency plans to determine specific actions and/or the mobilisation of specialist resources. The contingency plans should be reviewed both annually and after any incident, significant near miss or exercise.

Policing football grounds

While responsibility for the safety of spectators lies at all times with ground management, at certain stadiums and for certain matches or events the presence of the police may be required to maintain public order and prevent the commission of offences. Management should give all possible assistance to the police and provide reasonable facilities for the police within the control point.

Accommodating visiting supporters

At stadiums where supporters of visiting clubs or teams attend, advance planning between the ground management, the visiting club or team and the police is essential to ensure that such supporters are:

• directed and welcomed to the ground
• directed to the appropriate entrances
• accommodated safely
• always kept clearly informed of any special arrangements made for them inside the ground and on their departure.

Liaison between the management and police may be necessary to ensure that the likely numbers of visiting supporters is known. In consultation with the police, management should also determine clear policies on the accommodation of home and visiting groups of supporters, and on appropriate ticketing arrangements. Segregation of supporters is often an issue for clubs which must be planned in advance. There should be debriefing meetings to evaluate these arrangements and, if necessary, formulate changes for future events.

When a large number of spectators are expected from a non-English speaking country, management should provide verbal or written information in the language of the visiting supporters.

Alcohol in Football Stadiums

 The possession and consumption of alcohol is controlled by current legislation in England and Wales (see Bibliography) at the following sporting events:

• any association football matches in which one or both of the participating teams represents a club which is for the time being a member (whether a full or associate member) of the Football League, the Premier League, the Football Conference National Division, the Scottish Football League or Welsh Premier League, or represents a country or territory; or
• any association football matches in the competition for the Football Association Cup (other than in a preliminary or qualifying round).

At these events it is an offence to:

• possess alcohol or to be drunk whilst entering, or trying to enter, the ground.
• be drunk inside the ground.
• in general spectator areas, to possess alcohol in any part of the ground that offers sight of the pitch during the period commencing two hours before the start of the match and finishing one hour after the end of the match.
• in hospitality boxes and other rooms which overlook the pitch, to possess alcohol during the period commencing 15 minutes before the start of the match and finishing 15 minutes after the end of the match.
• be in possession of bottles, cans or other portable containers which are for holding drink and which, when empty, are normally thrown away or returned to the supplier and which are capable of causing injury to a person struck by them. This applies to any spectator entering or trying to enter the ground, and any spectators in any area
  of the ground from which the event may be directly viewed.

There is also legislation in Scotland which prohibits the provision and consumption of alcohol within spectator areas inside Scottish football grounds and allows, in limited circumstances, the provision and consumption in hospitality areas provided the view of the pitch is obscured.

First aid and medical arrangements

No match or event should have fewer than two first aiders. At all-seated grounds the ratio should be one first aider per 1,000 up to 10,000 spectators, and thereafter one per 2,000 of the number of spectators anticipated for the match or event. Where there is reason to believe that spectators will stand in seated areas in large numbers, the number of first aiders in the area concerned should be increased.

It is the responsibility of the Football Club to provide a room or rooms designated for the provision of first aid to spectators. This should be in addition to the club’s own medical room for players.

The first aid room should be provided and equipped in consultation with the local ambulance service NHS trust and representatives of the crowd doctors and the relevant first aid provider. Suitable arrangements should be provided for the procurement and replacement of the agreed scale of medical and first aid equipment and materials.

Management should ensure that defibrillators are provided at all events. If the management itself does not have defibrillators permanently on site, it should ensure that they are supplied by the medical and/or first aid provider. It is desirable that, where doctors and paramedics are deployed, a manual defibrillator should be provided. Automatic and semi-automatic defibrillators should also be available for suitably trained staff.

At least one crowd doctor, qualified and experienced in pre-hospital immediate care should be present. These doctors’ first duty must be to the crowd.

Management should make arrangements for the provision of at least one fully equipped ambulance staffed at paramedic level.

Major incident planning

All football grounds should have a major incident plan(MIP). The MIP should identify areas for dealing with multiple casualties and identify access and egress routes and a rendezvous point, for emergency service vehicles. Consultation should therefore take place between ground management, the police, fire and ambulance services, and the local authority, in order to produce an agreed plan of action for all foreseeable incidents.

All first aid and medical staff likely to be on duty should be briefed on their role in the major incident plan, preferably before they undertake event-day duties. A copy should be kept in the first aid room.

In the event of a major incident, all medical, ambulance and first aid staff will come under the command of the senior ambulance service NHS trust officer.

Alternative events in Sporting Grounds

Many football grounds are used for a variety of alternative events such as music concerts, firework displays etc.

Such activities should be the subject of a site-specific risk assessment in addition to any general risk assessment undertaken by the supplier of the activity.

The information contained in this article is based on advice contained in the Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds and has been used with the kind permission of the Football Licensing Authority (FLA) - www.flaweb.org.uk.