League One Side Shrewsbury Town Set to Be the First English Club to Implement Safe Standing

Shrewsbury Town FC are about to take an unprecedented move as they are ​set to become the first club in English football to implement 'safe standing' at their stadium, Greenhous Meadow, according to a report in the ​BBC.

They will look to introduce the safe standing area into the stadium before the close of the 2017/18 season as long as the initiative is approved by the authorities. The club, however, are confident that the project will be given the green light.

The Shropshire side, who narrowly avoided relegation to League Two last season, wants to remove 555 seats in their 10,000 capacity stadium, and replace them with rail seating.

The initiative was created by the Shrewsbury Town Supporters' Parliament, who approached the club with the proposal. They are attempting to finance the project via crowdfunding. They are looking to raise between £50-75k.

Mike Davis, from the Supporters' Parliament, says it will help Shrewsbury Town compete with other sides in League One.

"The issue we tend to have is when we come up against the big clubs - the Sheffield Uniteds, the Boltons - who bring huge away crowds, we get drowned out a little bit."

"So the hope is that bringing our vocal support behind the stand will improve that.  Some of our fans already stand but they want an area where they can do that safely and also we want to be able to improve the atmosphere within the ground."

The Shrews will hope that that their application to the Sports Ground Safety Authority will be resolved in weeks rather than months. The club are determined to be a pioneer as they are willing to create a smaller safe standing area if their funding goal is not reached.

Numerous English clubs throughout the professional tiers have looked at the possibility of introducing 'safe standing' into their stadiums. The success of the scheme at Scottish team Celtic has prompted the debate to be discussed among the Football League and Premier League.

However, under current regulations, Premier League and Championship clubs are required to have all-seater stadiums.