I’ll start by quoting the relevant section of the interview…

Questioner: How happy were you with the standard of the matchday operation by the end of the campaign?

Keith Edelman: Very pleased. I think the one thing we’re going to be working on very hard this season is fan behaviour. We’re going to be very tough on that as we always are. We don’t like swearing, we don’t like abusive behaviour and this year we’re going to be much harder in terms of stewarding and ensuring that everyone enjoys the Emirates experience. My objective is to make sure that everyone who comes to the stadium, be they small children, teenagers, adults or OAPs, has a good day out with good entertainment, good football and hopefully a win for Arsenal.

Okay, me again. Let’s face it, there seem to be instances of people being told by stewards last season that getting behind the team in the way that they have previously been accustomed to is no longer acceptable and could lead to ejection. And by this I mean standing up for short periods of time and singing loudly. So when I read phrases like “we’re going to be much harder in terms of stewarding and ensuring that everyone enjoys the Emirates experience”, I worry.

Now, I accept the licensing laws for Premiership grounds mean that standing is a no-no, and Arsenal have to play ball in the way that every other club does, although it seems to me enforcement is very inconsistent. But, although previously, I have been happy to let the safe standing areas campaign people get on with it, the gradual dying of the atmosphere at Arsenal home matches has spurred me into action and I am from here on going to give the campaign a bit of a serious plug, because I really believe this is the only way forward.

The law has to be updated, Arsenal will then hopefully see sense and establish sections where the seating is removed and people can stand up to back the team. There are some people who prefer to stand and some that prefer to sit at football matches. In honesty, I am of the latter persuasion these days, but in the back reaches of the upper tier, that is not an issue, and in truth, it’s one of the reasons I always prefer a higher pew. I get a decent view of the pattern of the game and I don’t normally spend half the match standing up then sitting down again every moment there is some drama.

In the lower tier there are sections where the majority of fans are content to or positively prefer standing up and making some noise. The redsection is the most obvious example of this and it’s no co-incidence that when an Arsenal goal in scored in the north end, it is that group of fans that the players run to and celebrate with.

So it’s really down to separating those who want to spend the match on their feet from those that want to do it on their behinds. A change in the law will probably take a year, and then with the necessary complications of changing particular areas and moving season ticket holders, the earliest anything is going to happen at Arsenal is the summer of 2009.

In the meantime, there is the continued danger of stewards alienating large sections of fans by implementing the letter of the law. It’s a far from ideal situation, and an element of tact and compromise on both sides would seem to be the way forward. And I am sure the club would be willing to re-locate people who find the constant getting up and down in sections where people do stand frequently a bit too much.

As for swearing and abusive behaviour. Hmmm. I don’t much care for gratuitous swearing myself, but the one thing I realise is that if I enter a football stadium, I am going to hear it. And if they start ejecting people for swearing, they are going to end up with crowds of about 20,000 with thirty minutes remaining. As for abusive behaviour? What are they going to do to prevent this? Refuse admittance to Jose Mourinho when Chelsea come to Ashburton Grove? This I am afraid is largely talk and it is never going to happen. If the stewards don’t like someone, they will find reasons to eject them and swearing and abusive behaviour will inevitably be used as said reason on some occasions.

However, until safe standing does return, some element of sensibility and diplomacy has to be used, and I am afraid that there are some stewards who just get off on the power of the dayglo jacket and turn into mini-Hitlers.

Arsenal have to work with the fans to help improve the atmosphere at the stadium. Not kill it by using a jackboot to crush a grape. The first move by the club to help this would be a positive statement confirming that – if there is a change in the safe standing law, they will consider such areas at the new stadium. Hell, they could even positively support the notion of such a legal change. And until that point the persistent standers should only do so if the people behind them are standing, so that the choice works from the back of the rows rather than the front. That is reasonable behaviour and I hope it is what happens in the redsection. If this is what happens, no-one has reason to complain to stewards as the decision to stand has been reached by consensus.

Aside from that, it’s up to football supporters to join the campaign to get the law changed. There will be more on the topic on this website over the course of the following weeks and months, but a good starting point for anyone wishing to get involved is the Football Supporters Federation, who are actively campaigning on this issue already.