West Brom: Shilen Patel urged to sanction key Hawthorns stadium change to improve atmosphere | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Safe standing inside football grounds is a constant debate that is had amongst football fans, clubs and governing bodies across the country, as matchday experience for fans is always an aspect of the game that is trying to be improved.

Clubs in the Premier League and Championship were allowed to begin opening sections of their stadiums to accommodate safe standing, from the beginning of the 2022-23 season, as part of a new trial.

Since then, more clubs have begun to move towards implementing safe standing, with fans across the nation seemingly largely in favour of having it at their football club.

One of the most recent clubs in English football to confirm they will be introducing safe standing is Coventry City, as they will open up their new section ready for the 2024/25 season.

As part of their trial, they sent a survey out to supporters regarding their interest in having safe standing at The CBS Arena, to which they found that over 80% of fans who completed the survey were in favour of introducing it.

West Brom fan pundit wants to see safe standing at The Hawthorns

FLW's West Brom fan pundit Matt Smith believes that the club should look to introduce safe standing at The Hawthorns from next season.

Speaking in response to one thing he would like to see The Baggies change over the summer, Matt said: "I'll go left field with the one thing we've got to change this summer, and it's put safe standing at The Hawthorns.

"I think that would markedly improve the atmosphere at The Hawthorns, which for home games, has been a bit flat for a while now.

"We've seen how big of a difference it can make, I mean Southampton in the play-offs, I think we gave as good as we've got as opposed to the second leg which was underwhelming.

"When teams come to The Hawthorns and it's rocking, they do tend to struggle. My best memories of Albion have been when it's packed out and we're beating some of the bigger teams in the Premier League.

"So I'd say that's a change I'd like to see made, bring safe standing to The Hawthorns because it's at a lot of teams now, and I don't know why we should be an exception."

Safe to say it's catching on

On Wednesday, it was announced from UEFA via Football Supporters Europe (FSE) that safe standing would now be able to be introduced in five new European countries.

Thanks to the campaigning efforts from FSE; most notably through their 'Europe Wants to Stand' campaign, the Netherlands, Belgium, Scotland, Portugal and Austria will now all be able to introduce safe standing for all UEFA club competition games.

FSE Executive Director Ronan Evain said: "Standing at matches positively contributes to the atmosphere of games enormously, is a significant element of fan culture across the continent, and helps to lower the pricing for these games generally.

"We commend UEFA for adding new countries into its Standing Facilities Observer Programme and we’re pleased to see that the initial pilot countries have demonstrated this."

Championship side Norwich City will also be joining Coventry City, and fellow second tier clubs such as Cardiff City and Queens Park Rangers by introducing safe standing at Carrow Road from next season too.

New Baggies owner Shilen Patel will certainly be keen to imprint his mark on West Brom this summer as the club look to bounce back from their play-off semi-fnal defeat this term.

Patel will likely be putting funds forward to allow Carlos Corberan to strengthen his side in the summer transfer window whilst off-pitch matters such as facilities at the club will be looked at - with safe standing potentially something that crops up in discussion.