Taylor Report
The Taylor Report is a document prepared under the supervision of Lord Taylor of Gosforth . It deals with the effects and causes of the Hillsborough disaster in the English city of Sheffield on April 15, 1989, which is considered to be one of the worst disasters in the history of football.
Lord Taylor was officially given the task of investigating the events of April 15 in the home stadium of Sheffield Wednesday and making recommendations for measures to control crowd control and safety at sporting events ( "To inquire into the events at Sheffield Wednesday Football Club ground on 15th April and to make recommendations about the needs of crowd control and safety at sports events " ). This was the ninth such official investigation after at least 306 people were killed in 27 accidents in British stadiums since 1900, 186 of them in official championship games after the Second World War , and over 3,500 injured.
According to a preliminary report published in August 1989 with the recommendation of 43 immediate measures - including reducing the capacity of the stadiums by 15% across the board, the removal of particularly critical perimeter fences and the immediate examination of the safety certificates in all stadiums - the final version appeared in January 1990. In addition to researching the causes that led to the tragedy, the focus is on recommendations for future regulations that should increase safety at sporting events.
recommendations
The term “Taylor Report” is usually associated with the main requirement of converting the football venues of the large clubs into stadiums with seating only, assigning each spectator a seat with the ticket and thus completely eliminating the standing area.
Other of the total of 76 recommendations deal, among other things, with the serving of alcoholic beverages in the stadiums, the arrangement of barriers, fences and turnstiles as well as the prices of admission tickets. The problem of hooliganism should be improved through better control of ticket sales to guest fans. Other points concern the containment of racist chants and the ban on fireworks in the stadiums.
The Football Stadium Advisory Design Council should be available to advise on a stadium design that complies with regulations.
consequences
Although the report does not generally classify the standing area in a stadium as a safety risk, the British government decided to consistently eliminate standing room. Numerous associations of football fans protested against this decision, among which the “Stand Up Sit Down” campaign of the Football Supporters' Federation (FSF) gained greater prominence.
The English Football League and its Scottish counterpart, the Scottish Football League, reacted to the Taylor Report by making it compulsory for the clubs to implement it in their stadiums when participating in the top division. Numerous clubs converted their stadiums according to the recommendation, some of them even before this was made binding regulation.