In 1989, stadium safety was based on the SSGA 1975 and the Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds, an official government publication widely known as the ‘Green Guide’ due to its green cover. Both had been introduced following the 1971 disaster at Ibrox Park, the stadium of Glasgow Rangers, in which 66 spectators were killed. The report into the disaster recommended a new process of certifying and inspecting football grounds. It also set out some proposed standards for clubs and licensing authorities to follow.
The Green Guide was first published in 1973. It provided detailed guidance on numerous aspects of stadium design and layout, such as how many exits were needed for each area, the use of crush barriers, particularly on terraces, and the construction of stairways. It also explained how to calculate the safe capacity of each area of the ground. It was, and remains, guidance and there is no legal requirement to adhere to it.
In 1976, and again in 1986, the Green Guide was updated, to include additional guidance and clarification. The 1986 version was produced soon after the publication of ‘The Final Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Crowd Safety and Control at Sports Grounds 1985’. This inquiry had been set up following two incidents at football matches on the same day, 11 May 1985: a fatal fire at Bradford City’s stadium, in which 56 people died, and a riot at a match between Birmingham City and Leeds United, in which a 15-year-old boy died. Following the two incidents, Justice Oliver Popplewell, a senior judge, was appointed by the then Home Secretary to undertake an inquiry into the operation of the SSGA 1975 and make recommendations to improve both crowd safety and crowd control. The Final Report is often referred to as the Popplewell Report.
Drawing on recommendations in the Popplewell Report, the Green Guide 1986 included some significant changes, such as:
a requirement for football clubs to have a designated safety officer “of sufficient status and authority effectively to take responsibility for safety at the ground”
additional guidance on the use of turnstiles for spectators entering a ground, including an observation that the maximum number of supporters that could enter through a single turnstile each hour was unlikely to exceed 750
a new chapter on crowd control, which had a specific reference to the need for clubs to work with the police to counter potential disorder
The Green Guide 1986 was the version in force at the time of the disaster.
The SSGA 1975 introduced a requirement for designated professional sports grounds to obtain a Safety Certificate. These were granted by local authorities, who were required to set terms and conditions to “secure reasonable safety” at the stadium. Local authorities were then responsible for checking whether the terms and conditions of the Safety Certificate were being met, and for deciding whether any condition of the Safety Certificate needed to be amended in response to changes at the ground.
Any stadium with capacity over 10,000 could be designated as needing a Safety Certificate, but in practice the requirement was initially just applied to the grounds used for Football League Division 1 (the equivalent of the modern-day Premier League) and those regarded as international football stadiums.
