WEST HAM need to sort out security at their new London Stadium before someone gets seriously injured or – God forbid – KILLED.
The crowd trouble that marred their 2-1 EFL Cup win over Chelsea on Wednesday showed the time has come for the Hammers to stop passing the buck, pointing the finger and pinching the pennies and take action.
They must make whatever improvements to their stadium and its security are necessary – regardless of how much it costs.
If they do not, the consequences could be far worse than the seven arrests, several ripped out seats and few split heads that resulted from their battle with the Blues.
West Ham’s argument that as tenants they are not liable for the cost of policing at their stadium may hold water legally.
But morally and ethically it sucks. And from a punter’s perspective, it is downright wrong.
Whether they like it or not, West Ham have a duty of care to every fan, nay every person, who sets foot inside ‘their’ stadium to watch one of their matches.
What is written on the title deeds is irrelevant. This is not a game of Monopoly we are talking about here, it is people’s lives.
The Hammers are making a fortune in revenue and signing players on the basis that the London Stadium is theirs.
When their co-owner David Sullivan showed striker Andre Ayew around the impressive arena last summer in a bid to persuade him to seal a record £20.5million move from Swansea it is unlikely he said, “Yes Andre, it is a lovely stadium, but I must point out it is not ours.”
Related Stories
And do you think Sullivan and co-owner David Gold will not bill the stadium as their own when they inevitably try to sell the club in a few years?
Of course they will. It will be their USP.
So having used their new home as commercial collateral, West Ham surely cannot complain about having to fork out a few quid on customer care.
It is not like they cannot afford it – after getting the stadium on the cheap.
The East End club, guaranteed £100m in TV money from the Premier League this season, are renting the former Olympic Stadium for just £2.5m a season.
As tenants they also do not have to pay for a number of essentials, including stewarding, goalposts, corner flags, cleaners and turnstile operators.
Security is another item they also do not have to pay, which is one of the reasons police were only on duty inside the stadium for the first time at the Chelsea match.
With football clubs liable to pay for every cop on duty inside their grounds, it is unsurprising the Hammers drafted in 1,000 stewards for their first Category C match at their new home.
But it was not enough as the Hammers’ bid to police one of football’s most flashpoint fixtures on the cheap backfired when Chelsea supporters broke through an inadequate cordon to trade blows with their home rivals.
Stewards went above and beyond the call of duty as they tried to keep fighting fans apart.
But would you jump in-between hundreds of grown men trying to punch each other senseless with nothing more than a hi-viz jacket and a minimum wage for protection?
Keep up to date with ALL the West Ham news, gossip, transfers and goals on our club page plus fixtures, results and live match commentary
In the end it took the intervention of dozens of riot cops to restore order.
The Chelsea fans taunted the home fans with chants of “Your ground’s too big for you” and that is a major part of the problem.
The vastness of the Olympic site means West Ham home games are almost impossible to police.
If the streets around Millwall are known as “bandit country” due to their railways arched rat-runs, then West Ham is like Zulu country – acres of parkland, some of it overgrown.
There are so many areas from which clued-up hooligans can enter the area and attack.
West Ham’s owners have always boasted their move to Stratford would turn them into a “big club”.
Now they must put their balance book to one side and show they are a big club by taking the moral high ground and paying what is necessary to reduce the threat of trouble at their stadium as much as possible.
That means paying for police to be on duty inside the stadium and improving access outside – before someone ends up dead.
Leave a comment