Moved to tiers

Anyone lucky enough to get tickets to this year's FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Manchester United at the new Wembley Stadium, might still be shaking from vibrations caused by the foot stamping and chanting of 90,000 fans.

For many spectators, the rumbling, pulsating grandstands of crowded sports stadiums can enhance the game experience. But in some extreme cases it can cause panic about the safety of the structure.

The way modern-day stadiums like the new Wembley and Twickenham are constructed there's almost no chance of structural collapse. But a group of civil engineering researchers at

claims that they are still designed with a lack of scientific information on the behaviour of crowds and the vibration levels they can produce.

This doesn't mean that stadiums can't handle crowd-induced shaking, they say, but they are over-designed in a way that is too conservative and costly.

The researchers hope to change that by gaining a better insight into the dynamic loads that spectators exert on grandstand structures. Their findings could then be used to influence government regulations in the designs of future stadiums.