Premier League clubs to make changes for disabled fans

Original post from Disabled Go News

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All Premier League clubs have agreed to improve access for disabled supporters by August 2017.

A 2014 BBC investigation found that 17 of England’s top-flight clubs failed to provide enough wheelchair spaces.

At the moment, 15 out of 20 clubs will have to increase capacity to comply with guidelines on accessible stadiums.

Earlier on Monday, a government report had criticised the inadequate facilities and support for disabled fans at Premier League grounds.

Minister for disabled people Justin Tomlinson MP had said “common sense can fix” some issues, but accepted other areas “will need some work”.

“Frankly, some of it is disgraceful,” he told BBC Sport. “There isn’t provision in some grounds, supporters are split up or are put in with the away fans. I find that totally unacceptable.

“We are in the last chance saloon with those football bodies saying: ‘You need to get your house in order.’ We need to get this addressed.”

A Premier League statement said: “We are undertaking our own assessment by surveying every Premier League stadium to determine improvements for disabled access.

“Disability access was discussed at the Premier League shareholders meeting last week with several new proposals agreed.”

Monday’s report – done jointly by the Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Culture, Media and Sport – recommends:

• Planning attendance: Clubs should provide attendance for all groups of disabled people. They should provide information such as stadium distance from local parking and gradient of pavements.
• Buying a ticket: Clubs should allow disabled spectators to buy tickets online. They should provide wheelchair seating that allows disabled spectators to sit with family and friends.
• Travelling to and from the venue: Clubs should provide up to date transport information.
• Overall experience: Match day and club stewards should be given disability awareness training, while abusive behaviour towards disabled spectators should not be tolerated.
• Aids and adaptations: Clubs should increase the number of wheelchair user places for stadiums with more than 10,000 seats.

In August, a survey carried out by charity Revitalise before the start of the new Premier League season suggested that many clubs are continuing to fail disabled fans.

It followed the second reading of the Accessible Sports Grounds Bill  in the House of Lords in July, where Lord Holmes of Richmond – Britain’s most successful Paralympic swimmer – called on Premier League sponsors and broadcasters to pull out of football unless progress was made in providing facilities for disabled fans.

In June, top-flight clubs were threatened with legal action after the Equality and Human Rights Commission said it had received a number of complaints, including about Manchester United removing walking aids from away fans.

At the time United said it was “actively working” with its own disabled supporters association and the Premier League to “assess areas for potential improvement”.

Online Accessibility Information

DisabledGo provides online accessibility information for a number of Premier League clubs, so that disabled supporters can find the in-depth information they need to know before attending a match which will reduce the stress, uncertainty and worry of attending the game. 

Here is the list of clubs we currently have access guides for:

Arsenal	http://www.disabledgo.com/access-guide/islington-council/arsenal-football-club—emirates-stadium-2
Crystal Palace	http://www.disabledgo.com/access-guide/london-borough-of-croydon/crystal-palace-football-club
Everton	http://www.disabledgo.com/access-guide/liverpool-city-council/everton-football-club-2
Leicester City	http://www.disabledgo.com/access-guide/leicester-city-council/leicester-city-football-club-2
Liverpool	http://www.disabledgo.com/access-guide/liverpool-city-council/liverpool-football-club-2
Newcastle United	http://www.disabledgo.com/access-guide/newcastle-city-council/newcastle-united-football-club-2
Bournemouth	http://www.disabledgo.com/organisations/afc-bournemouth/main

If your clubs not on the list above, but you would like to see a fine-grained access guide for it, let us know by contacting us at enquiries@disabledgo.com or get in touch via Facebook and Twitter!

Roisin Norris

Hi I’m Roisin Norris, Digital Marketing Executive at DisabledGo and I will be uploading blogs and news for you all to read.

More posts from author

Fifa corruption live: Sponsors turn on football’s governing body as Sepp Blatter goes into hiding

Original post from The Independent

‘……………..By ADAM WITHNALL

Visa, adidas, Coca-Cola and others issue damning statements

Here are the latest updates:

• Visa threatens to pull funding from Fifa

• Sepp Blatter misses three public appearance

• Fifa president may still be investigated by prosecutors

• Uefa says Fifa risks ‘killing football’

• How the FBI flipped its supergrass ‘Mr 10%’ Chuck Blazer

• Who are the officials and execs accused of corruption?

http://live.independent.co.uk/Event/Fifa_corruption_scandal_Live_updates

Please allow a moment for the live blog to load or click the above link

On Wednesday, the Swiss authorities raided a luxury hotel on Lake Zurich where Fifa’s top executives had gathered ahead of the football governing body’s presidential election on Friday, where president Sepp Blatter was expected to be elected for a fifth term.

Seven were arrested following an extradition request from US prosecutors, while former executive Jack Warner handed himself in to police in Trinidad and Tobago.

A separate criminal investigation was also launched by the Swiss authorities themselves, into the decisions to allocate the 2018 and 2022 Fifa World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively.

It is thought 10 Fifa officials involved in voting for those tournaments are being questioned, while prosecutors have not ruled out speaking to Mr Blatter himself.

READ MORE:
TWO INVESTIGATIONS SPARK FOOTBALL’S BIGGEST EVER CRISIS
CHUCK BLAZER: HOW THE FBI FLIPPED ‘MR 10%’
COMMENT: IS THIS THE FINAL WHISTLE FOR CORRUPTION IN FOOTBALL?

More from The Independent

The one quote that shows why the Fifa corruption arrests will change nothing

 Fifa corruption arrests: Three things you need to know

Disability Sports

Reblogged from Beyond Disability

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Football for the blind and partially sighted started out as a playground game for school children in special schools for the visually impaired. It has now become one of the most popular sports for people with a visual impairment worldwide.

The game was taken up in several countries, each playing according to its local customs (different balls and pitches were used, rules varied from country to country, etc.). Many countries, such as Spain and Brazil, set up national championships, and soon countries began to organise the first friendly international matches.

Blind football – or futsal, as it is also known – joined the IBSA fold in 1996 when the decision was taken to set up a futsal subcommittee. The first task of the committee was to set up internationally recognised and approved rules.
Disability
Disability Scholarship
With an agreed set of rules, the first IBSA European Championships were held in 1997 in Barcelona, Spain, and the first American Championships took place in Asunción in Paraguay.

Since then official IBSA regional and world championships have been held regularly and international friendly tournaments such as the IBSA Cup are a regular feature on the blind futsal calendar.

IBSA has two types of football – B1 for footballers who are completely blind, and B2/B3 for players who are partially sighted.

B1 football has become one of the biggest sports on the Paralympic Games programme following its debut at the Athens 2004 games. This was recognised at the recent London 2012 Paralympic Games when the number of teams taking part rose from six to eight. Brazil won the Paralympic tournament and the gold medal for the third time running, defeating France 2-0 in the final.

Blind football enjoys support from UEFA for its development activities in Europe.

IBSA Sports

Unacceptable behaviour in football

Coin throwing

Just because coin throwing and other non-acceptable crowd actions have been taking place for many years, is no reason for not taking any action. Why do football supporters act in this manner, after all it is only a game. People say you can become so involved in the game and your emotions take over. But surely this can be said of supporters in many other games, but they do not resort to actions of this nature.

Over the years there have been other spectacles that have had similar supporters reactions, what about the Gladiatorial Arenas of the Ancient Romans. It was not right then and it is not right now.

What actions can be taken, well you can have zero tolerance, CCTV, plants in the crowd and the crowds to police themselves, or a mix of all of them plus any others. By plants in the crowd, this could be plain clothed officials monitoring crowd behaviour from within the crowd and they could use miniature CCTV cameras on their person. Also with crowds monitoring themselves, I mean responsible supporters noting who is causing trouble and then reporting it to an appropriate official when safe to do so.

The point is no matter what it takes, action to stop this and other similar behaviour needs to be taken and be taken now.

Police chief announces retirement amid probe into role he played after Hillsborough disaster – Local – The Star

Police chief announces retirement amid probe into role he played after Hillsborough disaster – Local – The Star.

It is good to see he has decided to resign, but why wait until March 2013, he should go immediately

Sir Norman Bettison, Time to GO

Bettison your time is up.

Bettison it is too late to say sorry for the remarks you made after the inquiry findings. You had 23 years to formulate your views and comments. We all know you are now trying to save your skin.

It is not for me to decide how your conduct 23 years ago should be dealt with, but I believe your recent conduct leaves a lot to be desired.

As a Chief Constable, you, not only have a duty to your force, but also a duty to the people. The Inquiry held the view that the fans were not to blame and that some police officers had deliberately changed their statements. For, as I am aware, the Inquiry did not state that Sir Norman Bettison had done any of this. Therefore if you were not apparently guilty of this, you did not need to make a statement to try to clear your name and certainly not one that went against the Inquiry findings and still blamed the Liverpool fans.

This reaction shows a typical arrogance of some in the force and should not be tolerated and for this and your conduct you should go.

People have to have confidence in a Chief Constable, in that he has the manner and a respectful outlook to carry out his duties.  By your recent remarks in re-besmirching the fans any respectability you may have had is no longer there.

So for you  for your total lack of judgment in this matter, you are no longer FIT FOR PURPOSE as a Chief Constable and should for once do the decent thing and resign without any due delay.

Football Family Sport or not?

The case of racism in football or any sport for that matter needs to be addressed by all parties involved.

Is sport to be enjoyed by all the family, if so the actions of all participants need to be appropriate for the family. Abuse in any form is unacceptable.

The organisations policing each sport need to be proactive in dealing with abuse, otherwise if gutter abuse is tolerated, then the sport in question should be regulated to the gutter.

People often argue that the questionable behaviour has been taking place for years and this may be so.  This can not make it acceptable today.  Standards do not stand still, if this was the case we would still be living caves.  While at the time, that would not have been wrong, are the people harping back to the past be willing to still live in caves.

Society and countries change, unfortunately not always for the better.  This is why the judicial system as to ready to deal with all aspects and laws and judgements have to be for the betterment of the greater community while be in keeping with the ethics of the country.

The laws and customs of this country are based on Christianity and while not all persons in the country are Christians, everyone should abide by the laws of the land. As should all persons who travel to other countries.

The laws of the country in which a person is in at any particular time have to be observed.