I've been asked to write around 500 words for FC Buisness magazine; this is a magazine that is sent to all in the football world. Phil and Mark from the FSF are going to do individual pieces as well.

Mind is going to be in the style of an open letter to club chairmen explaining why we are so desperate for standing areas and I'd like to include a few quotes from you.

I can't guarantee I'll use all of them or that they won't be edited for space but if you could provide me with a few lines as to why you think we should have standing areas.

If you could include your name and age as well please, plus the club you support.

Also, if any of you know anybody who prefers to sit but believes in choice, they'd make for good quotes as well.

Safe Standing areas would go some way to redressing a balance that has swung too far towards families and percived 'comfort' - which in turn have diluted the atmospheres terribly in our club grounds.

Statistics show clearly that fans are demanding standing areas. At present the authorities would rather persist with large swathes of fans standing in seated areas every week than propose safer and more practical solutions.

Standing areas provide a choice - not just to those who wish to stand but also for those that wish to sit. At the moment so many fans are standing in seated areas that many supporters that want to sit find this impossible as they cannot see the game.

There is no evidence to suggest standing at football matches is unsafe. The FLA have admitted publicly that it is not unsafe. We continue to ask to be allowed to stand and we continue to wait for one real reason why we are not allowed to do so.

Just two of you?

Come on you lot.. the thread has been read nearly 40 times!!

Why are rugby fans and concert goers allowed to stand up and dance, yet we are not allowed to stand passively. It is completly illogical.

John, 18, Leicester fan

Could do it from both sides of the support argument eg:

"I'm an oap, I've done my bit for the team down the years and now I want to sit and watch the match everyother week in realtive peace with like minded individuals but I'm inpeded by younger people wanting to help the team. Nothing against this just I'm getting on a bit and can't do as much as I used to - why can't I sit"

"I'm a young supportter trying hard to find the money to follow my team across the land, I believe that vocal and passionate support helps the team home and away and this is only really done by standing with like minded people - I'm not a criminal but I find myself in trouble with stewards and in some cases the police because I want to stand while others want to sit - Why can't I stand"

It's just common sense, why make the people who want to sit, stand, and those who want to stand, sit. Both problems could be solved easily by allowing standing areas

Simon, Birmingham fan, 16

I like standing

Ryan, Coventry fan.

I prefer to stand as it increases my enjoyment of the game. Standing in a group of vocal supporters makes for a better atmosphere and makes me feel more than a mere "spectator".

I also agree that people who prefer to sit shouldn't be forced to stand to be able to watch the game when someone stands in front of them.

Joe White, 18, Bristol City supporter

Every week, thousands of people pay their entrance fee, and choose whether to stand or sit. This choice happens at Rugby League games, horse racing meetings, international Rugby League matches, rock concerts and in German footbal stadia.

In England, supporters pay their money and for 90 minutes are harangued by stewards, threatened with ejection and match-bans simply for wanting to stand to watch a game of football.

More and more people are standing at fotball matches. To ignore this just doesn't make sense.

I support two teams, one is in league 2 and the other is in the the Prem. I can go to a league two game on the Saturday and the terrace will be packed full of men women and children. It is totally safe as it has been since '54 and the atmosphere is fantastic. Then Tuesday comes around and I go and watch my prem team but spend all game being told to sit down as I'm not allowed to stand infront of my seat even though all the other fans around me also want to stand, it doesn't make any sense to me...

Jonathan Tindal

Peterborough United
Tottenham Hotspur

Age 25

For some of us simply being at the match isn't enough, because we're not really there unless our presence is heard, is seen and is felt. We thrive on the camaraderie we share with friends and strangers who wear the same coloured scarves as us, we want to stand shoulder to shoulder and sing the same songs and feel a part of something bigger, a togetherness. Yet we're treated with disdain by the people who are supposed to look after our game and act in our interests, looked upon with suspicion because we don't agree with the repression. Todays game prides itself on it's family image, it claims to be more inclusive than ever. But the sad truth is, never before in the history of the game have so many people felt so excluded.

David, 23
Norwich City

Tom Hammond Barnet 22

I actually chose to support my team party because I am allowed to stand up at home games. Away games are another story, however. Despite us fans being sensible and the standers congregating at the back we are still told to sit even though all we are doing is standing up and singing. It is not dangerous. All we are doing is supporting our team! There is no logical reason why this is not allowed!

My Grandad is 80 odd and supports Barnet and Harrow Borough (he watches Harrow more because there are much better parking facilities for the disabled there). He used to support Chelsea and stood on the terraces regularly at Stamford Bridge and watched all the England matches at Wembley. He loved the atmosphere. We went to the new wembley last season and there was no atmosphere. There is no atmosphere any more at England home matches. Maybe that was an influence in our failiure to qualify for euro 2008. Now at his age he can hardly walk and thus chooses to sit in the main stand at Harrow Borough. Thanks to the fact that supporters do have a choice of standing and sitting at Earlesmead everyone who sits in the main stand is like minded and also wants to sit so there is no standing at moments of excitement and he can just get on with watching the game. There is no way, even if money was no object, that he could watch matches at Stamford Bridge anymore simply because he would only be able to see about half the game and whenever anything interesting happened he would miss it due to others standing and blocking his view!

The answer to his and everyones problems are to introduce standing areas at football grounds!

The end!

... Amanda you don't have to use all of this just giving you some things to think about!

I've just thought about something else actually. You always get commontators saying how good the atmosphere is when fans are standing, they sometimes even mention the fact that they are standing and it's making the atmosphere so good! In the game Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, one of the generic commontator quotes is "the rhythmic chanting of the crowd, so many of them on their feet is giving this a unique flavour".

I'm a young supportter trying hard to find the money to follow my team across the land, I believe that vocal and passionate support helps the team home and away and this is only really done by standing with like minded people. I'm not a criminal but I find myself in trouble with stewards and in some cases the police because I want to stand while others want to sit - why can't I stand?

Ryan McGeown, 16
Manchester United

(Nice one yorkie- suits me)

Nick Brayley, 20
Swansea City

I am a student who works part time to finance my love for my club. I go to every game home and away and watching the game as a 'spectator' isn't enough for me. I stand and sing to let out my passion and nerves in a positive manor. I have travelled the length of this country many times having seen my team put in a terrible performance and lose, then one home game I was thrown out for persistant standing on the back row. I missed our winning goal as I was stood outside talking to a steward, it made me think of all those long fruitless journeys made up and down the country, wishing we'd got a winning goal, but there I was stood outside the stadium hearing the cheer thinking 'I don't care less'. If a can't vocally support my team then whats the point, thats my enjoyment, why can't the authorities respect that wish?

i have been supporting liverpool ever since i moved their 3 years ago and can not believe you are not allowed to stand at a football match it's totally unbelievable, me and all my freinds would rather stand and sing than sit and be silent if given the choice but we aren't, i find the stewards bully tactics in certain grounds very intimidating and i find going to watch the football less enjoyable each year.

John Jones
17
Liverpool

Everyone goes for different reasons - Personally, I like to stand up and make a bit of noise. There's no sensible reason why its not allowed and in an age when everything has the phrase "Matchday Experience" tagged onto it, its crazy that people don't have this choice and the treatment they get from stewards if they try and stand in an area where all their friends would be considered terrible customer service too. Its no coincidence that the most enjoyable away day for me this season has been Cardiff and that during so many of this seasons big Cup games, its been mentioned that supporters are standing by commentators.
-Paul W, (20), Leicester City.

"Whatever the rights and wrongs of the decision to ban standing in 1989, it is clear that the current scenario is not working and is totally unsustainable. Fan's that wish to stand cannot do so, and fans that wish to sit down are constantly suffering from fans standing in front of them. Improvements in safety, such as the elimination of fences and introduction of CCTV means that standing accommodation could and should be re-introduced. It is a sensible, simple and contemporary solution to a contemporary problem"

Thanks all of you!

Hopefully we can use some of your comments..

"I watch a lot of football in both Germany and England. These two countries have the highest attendances in Europe, however, their stadia are very different.

Safe Standing areas are permitted in top German grounds. These attract a wide range of people, including large numbers of women and children. There are great atmosphere's in the grounds and very little in the way of crowd trouble.

The English game attracts people due to the very high standard of football. However, its suppoter base is ageing, with just 11% of premiership matchgoers under 24 and the average age into the mid-forties. Many of today's supporters started attending games in their youth, but if the youth of today are no longer attending matches, where is the support of tomorrow going to come from?

The problem can only be addressed by making stadia more appealing for young people. By learning from the German model and allowing people the choice to stand and enjoy themselves, we can go some way to addressing this issue and giving the English game a brighter future."