Scottish club Celtic have become the first UK mainland club to introduce a safe standing area in its stadium.

The first rail seating area in the UK was launched this weekend at Celtic Football Club.

Rail seating is prevalent in Germany and is not terracing, it is a system where seats are installed and can be used for European games where standing areas are not allowed.

In essence it is simple, rails are installed for domestic games and supporters are allowed to stand as many already do in all seated stadium, but there is a rail in front of them so that they cannot fall forward and cause a domino affect.

In essence it is far safer than the current practice where a blind eye is turned to sections in the ground where supporters defy ground regulations and simply stand, in the past various clubs have tried to implement the rules and have seen it create more problems than it is solving with scuffles between stewards and supporters.

Rail seating is the natural answer and fair play to Celtic for implementing the scheme, Bristol City have done something similar at Ashton Gate, but are only allowed to use it for standing when they are hosting Rugby games and not for football.

The power to make decisions on stadium safety are devolved in Scotland, allowing local authorities there to give the green light to standing areas in the top flight, which is not the case in England and Wales.

2,975 safe standing rail seats have been installed in one corner of Celtic Park at a cost of £500,000 and it was packed with fans at the weekend for a friendly fixture against German side Wolfsburg.

Attending the launch, Jon Darch from the Safe Standing Roadshow said:

"A fantastic atmosphere will be in store for the fans here and for the fans all across the stadium."

"It's a huge investment in spectator safety, in passion, colour, noise and atmosphere," Jon said in a broadcast video to the Supporters Summit at Wembley."

"You don't need a loudspeaker making the noise in a ground, you need the fans - and this is an significant investment in that."

The club was given the go-ahead to implement rail seating last summer following negotiations between Celtic and the local Safety Advisory Group and all 2,975 places have already been sold as season tickets with a waiting list.

This is a big step forward in the safe standing campaign and whilst this has it's detractors, in the main their objections are rooted in history and the old style terracing of 30 years ago, rail seating and other safe standing options are far removed from "Terracing" and are far safer than that as well as being far better than the disaster waiting to happen that is the current trend of standing in seated areas, especially in some of the modern stands that have very steep rakes.

Photo: Action Images

cheltenhamsaint added 10:31 - Jul 20 I prefer to sit when I am St Mary's but I have long been in favour of this arrangement for parts of the ground where supporters prefer to stand. Terracing is only dangerous when over crowding occurs. I really don't see the difference of one seat being replaced by one standing spot. I prefer to stand at away games as do most travelling fans who tend to be vocal in their support

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Jesus_02 added 11:48 - Jul 20 It will never fly with the FA because a key part of their management of the game is to reduce supporter numbers and increase ticket prices. It reduces the working class element that used to attend.
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SaintBrock added 20:20 - Jul 21 People died because they were standing and got crushed. End of story.
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