ASSESSMENT OF FOOTBALL GROUNDS FOR PLAYER SAFETY

Professional football clubs have a duty under UK health and safety leg islation to carry out risk assessments of their activities; one requir ement under this duty is to assess the impact of ground layout on play er safety. To assist clubs in meeting this requirement, a Ground Playe r-safety Score (GPS) has been developed that is defined by a base-fact or, determined from the position of perimeter fencing in relation to t he pitch, but which is degraded when other hazards, e.g. advertising h oardings, photographers and TV equipment, are present in the areas con tiguous with the playing area This approach has been used to assess th e layouts of forty seven English and Scottish professional football cl ubs. The assessment showed that only 42% of the English and 71% of the Scottish clubs achieved an acceptable score. However, in all but a fe w cases the clubs could modify their ground layout to improve the GPS and reduce risks to players without capital expenditure. With these ch anges, acceptable GPS figures could be achieved by 92% of the English and by 100% of the Scottish clubs. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.