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The Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, has backed the campaign among many football supporters for the return of standing areas at major league grounds in the UK, so long as they are safe.

In an interview with a Manchester United fanzine, Sir Gus (a United fan himself) says of "safe-standing": "I like the idea. I mean the emphasis is on the 'safe' as none of us want to go back to the problems we had with the Hillsborough disaster. Certainly when you go to a Man United away game and you're with supporters who don't really sit down very much, let's be honest, the atmosphere's fantastic! So if you can find a safe way of doing it then most real fans would much rather be standing up than stuck in a corporate box.

"You've got to be sure about the safety angle, but with good design you can solve these problems. Civil servants are definitely not against it, I can tell you that. It is our job to implement policy as decided by ministers - we don't make decisions on these things.

"I think if ministers were keen and if you can crack the safety problems then personally, give people the choice. You don't need to make a stadium all standing, you can have seats and certain sections where people can stand up."

On a separate issue, Sir Gus criticises the habit of recent prime ministers to give their ministers very little time in the posts they fill.

"The average length of tenure for a minister is one year and three months," he says, "which is really short. I would love for that to be longer but ministers do tend to change... I'm very much in favour of trying to get ministers in and keep them as long as possible."

It's thought David Cameron is sympathetic to Sir Gus' views on this, and likely to hold much less extensive reshuffles than Tony Blair and Gordon Brown did. Mr Cameron is said to think there should be much more continuity in ministerial offices.

On a lighter note, Sir Gus denies that he uses the initials GOD when signing civil service documents.

"Occasionally when there's only room for initials I'll put GO'D," he says, "but it's certainly not a habit."

Sir Gus has told friends that he expects to retire as Cabinet Secretary either towards the end of this year, or at the start of 2012.

The absolute deadline for his retirement is October 2012 when he reaches the age of 60.

Sir Gus may well be replaced by another Manchester United fan, Jeremy Heywood, the permanent secretary for the prime minister's department, but he plays down reports of a rivalry between the two men for influence within the Coalition government.

"Ha ha," he says to the suggestion of a rift with Mr Heywood. "The thing you should know is that we live near to each other and we travel in regularly, well every day, together. I hope we're both going to get to the Arsenal game together."