Credit: Howard Cohen
It is often said that Football is for everyone – but disabled supporters have long faced a battle for access to stadiums, including issues such as transport, inaccessible ticketing systems, or inadequate parking and toilets facilities.
Beyond this, research shows disabled supporters can often feel social excluded or marginalised in stadiums, facing negative experiences from other fans.
Premier League clubs are facing a race to make their grounds more accessible, ensuring all fans are welcome, which is a slow process.
Howard Cohen, 62, is part of the Manchester City Disabled Supporters Association, having lived with a neuromuscular condition since birth.
He said: “There are always battles to fight, there’s a big issues with clubs not taking disabled fans seriously and doing what you politely could call box ticking exercises.
“Some clubs don’t have the funding yet to employ specialist staff, and it’s always going to be a problem until governing bodies are tightened up.
“The will is there, but the knowledge isn’t.”
Mr Cohen stressed that the supporter’s group have an excellent relationship with Manchester City and the Premier League, both of which offering regular meetings to discuss accessibility.
Despite this, disabled fans can often feel underrepresented by these bodies, with consultations feeling tokenistic.
Mr Cohen said: “Often a consultation is just a case of ‘we’ll tell you what we’re going to do’ instead of having a meeting and working out how to solve the problem, and that’s disappointing.”
“We really need our own voice as disabled fans need to be able to feed in from our own experience rather than other advocating on our behalf. So that’s going to be a very big change from the start of next season.”
An obvious issue with accessibility is the age of a stadium, with many grounds built without consideration of disability access.
A recent accessibility league table revealed seven of the top ten most accessible Premier League stadiums were built in the 21st century.
Alongside this, the top two, Everton and Tottenham, were both opened in the last seven years, with accessibility very much a modern concern.
At the other end of the rankings is Fulham’s Craven Cottage, deemed the Premier League’s least accessible ground, whilst also being the league’s oldest.
Only one of the bottom five clubs, Crystal Palace, have a stadium built outside of the 19th century.
David Townley, the head of club relations at disability support charity Level Playing Field, said: “There is obviously a correlation with the age of the stadium and how accessible it is.
“Newer Stadiums do tend to have that level access, but even then, it’s not always perfect.
“Lots of the older grounds will renovate or maybe build a new stand, and so for things like that there’s the opportunity to take some time out and think ‘how can we make sure that any of the new things are as accessible as they can be.’
“It’s a real mixed bag out there, some clubs are fantastic in terms of their attitudes and their provisions, doing all that they can to make the matchday as accessible and as inclusive as possible, others unfortunately less so.”
Manchester City, having moved into the Etihad Stadium in 2002, sit eighth in the rankings.
Mr Cohen said: “We’re lucky we have a relatively new stadium, and that accessibility was taking into account, because they’ve got older stadiums who are actively creating the wheelchair platforms.
“If a stadium was built over 100 years ago, then of course it’s going to take a little more planning, and what you find is the only place they can put wheelchairs is the perimeter of the pitch.
“But, there are always clubs who are surprisingly good despite having an older stadium and smaller fan base, with lower amounts of funds available.”
One problem is away support, with safe standing, which came into place in 2022, raising new concerns for disabled supporters.
Away supporters needing accessible previsions often find the only place they can watch the game is pitch side.
Mr Cohen said: “All away sections now have safe standing and that means somebody who can’t stand up for any length of time effectively now banished from every attending an away match because they have to sit down and they can’t see the game.”
But, disability access moves much beyond accessibility for wheelchair users, with many clubs shifting to make grounds more accessible for those with visual impairments, or neurodivergence.
This was brought to light by Brentford in early 2026, when they offered provisions for a visually impaired fan, Melvin, creating specialist commentary to ensure the game could be enjoyed by all.
Mr Townley said: “A lot of the time when people think about accessibility they think about just wheelchair users and making sure there are wheelchair users and level access, which obviously is part of it, but you’ve got people who are blind or deaf or neurodivergent.
“Even at those old grounds that may not be as accessible, there’s a lot they can do like having audio descriptive commentary for people who aren’t blind or partially sighted so that there can be a better description of what’s going on for blind people, or making sure you’re accommodating assistance dogs.
“There’s lots of things that are quite inexpensive but it’s more just making sure that you’re doing what you can and hearing from your own supporters.”
Many clubs have moved towards ensuring audio-visual commentary is available, and making stadiums as accessible as possible, but the issues often go deeper than most fans appreciate.
For Howard, it’s about making the improvements one step at a time, and ensuring football can be for everyone:
“I haven’t always been a wheelchair fan, but I’ve seen huge changes in my lifetime.
“It’s moving in the right direction, but it’s not there yet.”