Premier League football clubs could face legal action to force improvements in their “shocking” facilities for disabled supporters. Just two clubs, Swansea City and Leicester City, meet the minimum wheelchair places recommended by the Home Office’s green guide, with eight providing fewer than half.
By David Conn for the Guardian
The numbers apply to new stadiums but as long ago as 1998 the Premier League, as part of the Football Task Force, agreed the figure should be applied to all existing grounds. Yet changes have not been made and a huge divide exists between the generally better and sometimes excellent facilities at new stadiums and inadequate provision for disabled supporters in many older grounds.
Joyce Cook, chair of the disabled supporters’ campaign group Level Playing Field, has long argued that the clubs are discriminating and in breach of the Equalities Act, by providing disabled people with a lower level of service.
