West Ham must sort out London Stadium violence as fighting completes nightmare day for the club

Ken Dyer12 September 2016

On the London Stadium pitch it turned into a nightmare afternoon for West Ham on Saturday. Off the pitch, it was even worse.

Yes, there were bound to be teething problems when the club moved from their antiquated but atmospheric old home at the Boleyn to their impressive new rented accommodation in the middle of the Queen Elizabeth Park, Stratford.

On Saturday, though, even as their team imploded against Watford, up in the stands children were left crying, parents distraught as violence, not for the first time since West Ham’s big move, erupted in the stadium. The unpleasantness was not confined to the cheap seats, either. One board member, according to David Sullivan Jnr, son of the co-owner, was spat on and others verbally abused while stewards did nothing.

The club’s owners, Sullivan Snr and David Gold, will know this cannot go on. What should have been a brave new dawn for the club is turning more toxic with every successive game. Poor and sometimes non-existent stewarding will be high on vice-chairman Karren Brady’s priority list when she meets with stadium operators LS 185 tomorrow.

Major responsibility also lies with the fans. At Upton Park, standing by groups of fans was tolerated, even though it was prohibited. Those same fans want to continue to stand at their new home but the club, who are looking for a licence to extend the stadium’s capacity to 60,000 and ultimately 66,000, have taken a harder line, even threatening to withdraw season tickets from those who continue to transgress.

That has upset and annoyed those fans but behind them other supporters, some of them new and with children, have had their view compromised and are equally disgruntled.

The other major area of concern is the ‘buffer zone’ between home and away fans. It is nowhere near big enough and the stewarding has been, once again, inadequate. In the past, the club employed their own staff and many had been at the same post for years. They knew how to deal with the majority of football fans, unlike the stewards at the London Stadium.

Stewarding an AC/DC concert may have its challenges but nothing compared to those presented by a West Ham versus Tottenham clash, for example.

The Football Association are investigating the latest trouble and the club will be acutely aware that, should it continue, they will be subject to heavy fines or worse.

However, their hands are tied to a large extent by the fact that they have to rely on others to put things right. Like any tenant, they can ask their landlord for help but that’s where it ends.

West Ham need to find a solution — and quickly. Their manager, Slaven Bilic, warned that moving home would not be straightforward and — on the evidence of Saturday’s 4-2 defeat by Watford — he was spot on.

The crowd can play their part in helping their team acclimatise.

Up to now, to be fair, the vast majority have done just that, creating an impressive atmosphere beneath the new roof of the former athletics stadium.

Invariably, though, the few can often spoil things for the many.

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