Selected Premier League and Championship clubs have been invited to pilot safe standing areas in their grounds from January 1 as part of a trial.
Safe standing has not been allowed in the top two divisions in English football for over a quarter of a century, following a law introduced in 1994 that all fans are required to sit during matches.
The Sports Ground Safety Authority group (SGSA) has invited clubs to submit an application by October 6 to become part of the trial, subject to approval.
Premier League sides Manchester United, Man City, Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool have already constructed areas in their stadia that can accommodate safe standing trials in the easiest and safest manner.
The SGSA has reviewed how Scottish Premier League giants Celtic and the whole German Bundesliga division have been administering their safe standing areas since they were allowed to permit standing supporters.
The Football Association, along with the Premier League and EFL groups, have approved the return of safe standing should their clubs' local authorities allow these areas to return.
Certain Premier League clubs have been preparing for the return of safe standing areas, after the Conservative Government promised in their 2019 election manifesto that work would be done to reintegrate the phenomenon back into football society.
Wolves became the first Premier League side to install rail seating at the start of 2019. The mix of rail seats and seats with separate barriers has been installed in a currently unused block of the Billy Wright Stand to show fans and the local Safety Advisory Group how they would work should the law banning persistent standing be dropped.
In the same year, Tottenham opened their new £1billion White Hart Lane stadium with a large area supported by rail seats.
The two Manchester clubs in England's top-flight have constructed safe standing areas for the new season that kicked off in August. City installed 5,600 rail seats this year while United now have 1,500 barrier seats at Old Trafford.
Liverpool also began installing 7,800 rail seats in their Kop and Anfield Road ends at the beginning of August for the new campaign.
Chelsea also installed rail seats at their Stamford Bridge stadium for the new season as they prepare for the expected safe standing trials.
Persistent standing was banned in 1994 in the wake of the Taylor Report that followed the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.
The 1990 report by Lord Justice Taylor claimed that standing accommodation was not completely unsafe, but Margaret Thatcher's Government decided that no standing areas should be allowed.
The law was passed four years after the report when John Major was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.