EFL welcomes Shrewsbury Town's interest in safe standing section at Greenhous Meadow
English Football League chief executive Shaun Harvey has welcomed Shrewsbury's application to introduce safe standing at their ground.
The Sky Bet League One side would become the first English club to create a safe standing area if their bid, which was announced on Tuesday, is approved by the Sports Ground Safety Authority.
Clubs in England's top two divisions have been legally required to have all-seater grounds since the measure was recommended by the 1990 Taylor Report into the Hillsborough disaster.
Shrewsbury's 10,000-capacity stadium, Greenhous Meadow, was built 10 years ago, so is not governed by the all-seated legislation, which allows clubs in the bottom two divisions of the EFL to keep terraces that existed before 1994.
At present 21 clubs in the EFL operate with standing accommodation, including Brentford and Burton in the Championship, but other sides in the same divisions are prohibited from doing so.
The Shrews plan to introduce a safe standing area of around 500 in the Salop Leisure Stand through a crowdfunding campaign - which is reportedly aiming to raise around £75,000 - and Harvey hopes it proves a success.
He said: "This is an important step on the journey towards our stated aim of seeing standing in stadiums across the EFL and I wish Shrewsbury Town every success in reaching their crowdfunding target to support their application.
"The installation of standing accommodation will be popular with the club's fans and, more widely, will prove a valuable opportunity to assess the use of this form of accommodation at an English football ground.
"All the standing areas, including those that have been removed after the transition arrangements, were all recognised as safe and it's now time to reconsider with the government whether the current approach needs to be reviewed."
The Premier League recently wrote to its 20 clubs asking if they would be interested in taking part in a trial to reintroduce standing sections in their grounds, with West Brom admitting to showing an interest.
Ladbrokes Premiership champions Celtic installed 2,600 rail seats - seats that can be flipped down or locked into an upright position, with safety barriers separating each row - at Parkhead last season and it was considered a major success.
"As a Scot, I am very familiar with the great success that Celtic have had with their rail seating section," said Shrewsbury chief executive Brian Caldwell.
"So when the Supporters' Parliament approached me about introducing the same concept here, I was immediately keen on the idea.
"Our safety officer has also visited Celtic Park recently and is all for it.
"We see it as an enhancement in spectator safety and a welcome provision of supporter choice.
"We hope, too, that by pioneering the use of rail seating in the EFL, we will be playing a useful part in paving the way for other clubs in England and Wales to follow suit in due course."