The Anfield safe standing rail seating has been a success so far | OneFootball

One of the things that Liverpool supporters know better than most is that standing isn’t safe at a football ground. The Hillsborough Disaster indelibly changed the face of football in the United Kingdom, turning stadiums around the country into all-seater affairs.

In recent years, however, the idea of ‘safe standing’ has been introduced, with Anfield one of the last places to trial it for entirely obvious reasons. It has been in place for a couple of years now, though, so the obvious question to ask is how it is going and what people make of it.

Rail Seating Explained

Rail seating as a concept has been around for some time in other leagues, with the German Bundesliga being a particular proponent of it. Each of the seats is incorporated with a metal frame, which is robust and offers a rail that is waist-high for the person behind them.

They are installed on a permanent basis and take up the same amount of space as a normal seat, but they allow people to stand during matches without having to fear being moved around between rows when supporters celebrate goals or move around for some reason.

The rail seats interlock, providing a high-strength rail that runs along the entire length of each row. The actual height of them varies from place to place, so some will stand at 90 centimetres off the ground and others will be at 115 centimetres. UEFA have not allowed rail seating to be used in their competitions, so the seats are ‘unlocked’ prior to a match in one of their tournaments, such as the Champions League, in order to ensure that football grounds comply with their rules. They are ‘locked’ for non-UEFA competitions to ensure supporters can stand safely.

How it Works at Anfield

At the home of Liverpool Football Club, rail seating was put into the stadium during the 2020-2021 season, the majority of which was played behind closed doors. It meant that it was in place by the time that supporters were allowed back into the ground for the following campaign, with 7,800 rail seats installed on the Kop and the lower section of the Anfield Road Stand.

During the season, another 2,500 rail seats were added to the Kop, then in the summer of 2023 another 3,000 were added prior to the entirety of the Kop becoming safe standing in the April of 2024.

Anyone who has ever been on the Kop will know that it is somewhere that everyone stands up for the entirety of the match, with the same usually being true of away supporters in the Anfield Road Stand. What was taking place was unsafe standing, so the decision to move to rail seating was done in order to allow everyone to do what they were doing anyway but in a manner that would be safer for all concerned.

The trial was seen as a success, which is why the decision was taken to introduce it to the rest of the Kop.

Will it be Introduced to the Rest of the Stadium?

One of the things that Liverpool supporters are most proud of is the atmosphere at Anfield in the games when it really matters. That atmosphere is usually produced by the Kop and echoed in other parts of the stadium, driven by the fact that those on the Kop have been able to stand up and get their whole body involved in creating the atmosphere.

The result of that is that the temptation will be there to add rail seating to the rest of the ground, allowing others to also get involved in getting behind the team and making a lot of noise.

Part of the problem is that not everyone wants to stand for the duration of a football match. Anyone who gets a ticket on the Kop or in the Anfield Road knows that standing is par for the course, but the same isn’t true of older people who might usually choose to sit in the likes of the Main Stand or the Kenny Dalglish stand.

Then there is the fact of how high up the back of the Main Stand is, where it may actually feel unsafe to be stood up, even with the benefit of a rail in front of you. It is unlikely that rail seating will be brought in everywhere, but it will almost certainly be at Anfield forever now.