West Bromwich Albion: Safe standing to be installed at Hawthorns in 2025-26

West Bromwich Albion are to become the latest club to follow the growing trend towards ‘safe standing’ areas at football grounds.

A total of 3,864 seats at The Hawthorns, mostly at the Smethwick End, as well as in the Millennium Corner, will be converted in time for the 2025-26 season.

The club’s official ground capacity will remain at 26,804.

According to a football ground guide published in September 2024, external, Albion would become the 18th EFL side with areas of safe-standing rails.

There are already 13 Premier League clubs who have them, plus the national football stadium at Wembley.

All-seater stadia were a recommendation of the Taylor Report which followed the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, in which 97 fans died in a crush at the Leppings Lane End during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

The first safe standing area since then came during the 2021-22 season, when football crowd safety began to be looked at again following the Covid pandemic.