West Ham says they will give life bans to any supporter who entered the pitch or threw missiles last Saturday in a statement on WHUFC.com this afternoon.
The statement reads: “West Ham United are committed to taking decisive and positive action with the primary focus of ensuring London Stadium is a safe, comfortable and secure environment for supporters attending future matches.
Following the incidents which marred the second half of the Premier League fixture with Burnley on Saturday 10 March, the Club is conducting a full and thorough investigation, and has attended a series of emergency meetings with London Stadium stakeholders. The Club is working in close conjunction with the Metropolitan Police to identify those individuals, who entered the pitch during the second half, and with stadium operator LS185, using London Stadium’s high-quality CCTV footage, to identify those who threw missiles, both of which are specific offences under the Football (Offences) Act 1991.
Any individual found guilty will be banned from attending any West Ham United fixture, home and away, for life and the Club will request the courts serve a banning order to prevent these individuals attending any football matches in the future.West Ham United maintain a zero-tolerance policy towards any behaviour of this nature, with the safety of all supporters always the Club’s number one priority.
Senior Club representatives will take a full and leading role at an emergency meeting of the core Safety Advisory Group (SAG) at London Stadium on Thursday. There, West Ham United will be joined by representatives from LS185, certifying authority Newham Council, the Sports Ground Safety Authority, the Metropolitan Police, E20 and the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC).
The Club will make clear that its primary concern is for the safety and comfort of its supporters on matchdays and, to that end, will lead discussions centred on the safety management plans put in place and the policing and stewarding for future fixtures at London Stadium, the first of which will be the Premier League visit of Southampton on Saturday 31 March. West Ham United would like to thank all those fans who supported the team on Saturday and look forward to welcoming them back to a safe, comfortable and secure London Stadium.
With eight Premier League matches still to play, achieving the points we need has to be the focus. The best chance of reaching that goal is for everyone to be united behind the team when we play Southampton on 31 March and for the remainder of the season.”
I’m glad to hear West Ham will take what is wholly appropriate action in issuing life bans. It is the only way to stop these thugs from ruining tens of thousands of fans days out with their violence and disruption. Those who ran on the pitch and threw missiles thoroughly deserve to be banned. Most West Ham fans are sick of all the endless belly aching, and the violence and disruptions caused by the minority who want to send the club down cannot be tolerated.
At the start of the Burnley game with the sun bursting through the clouds to shine on the Bobby Moore stand during a tribute to the great man i felt quite emotional. I had my kids with me watching clips of Bobby on the big screen. I was feeling proud to be West Ham. Then these idiots began invading the pitch and gathering under the directors box to hurl abuse or coins or whatever they were throwing. In that box were West Ham legends, Bobby Moores family. In the crowd were ten thousand child season ticket holders experiencing that. Many young families forced to up and leave as the mood darkened and suddenly id gone from feeling proud to feeling ashamed to be a West Ham fan. This was the the lowest ive ever felt as a West Ham fan. It was all thanks to these idiots who werent even interested in what was going on on the pitch and made no attempt to even watch the football leave alone get behind our team. Soon as they are all banned the better. some of these people moaning on about how our club has died need to wake up and realise they are the ones that are killing it, before its too late.
Summed up perfectly Clive. I was there with my son and left early. The club need to introduce a family area. We must be the only club in the Premier League that does not have one. When I tweeted David Gold about this last year his reply was “the whole stadium is family friendly”.
Doesn’t seem to say anything about the mob probably less than a handful of bans, if they barred 100 for a few seasons it would send out the right message, Sir Trev had the right message when he said these idiots are trying to drag us back into the 80’s the chairmen should listen to him instead of making more poor judgement calls trying to appease bullies is pointless, this lot are a rabble we never needed but various chairmen tried to get onside…
What would any West Ham fan gain from our relegation? Why do people persist in saying this when the idea is just laughable? What possible satisfaction would they get from it? I thoroughly disagreed with people running on the pitch. Any demonstration should be held before or after the game. This, however is not why we are staring at relegation. We have an especially weak squad, that is why. We have only won 7 games all season. That is why. We failed to improve the side in the last window, in fact, weakened it. That is why. We have thrown away 36 points from winning positions. That is why. There were no demos during the games against L’pool, Swansea, B’mouth, N’castle, Brighton etc. What were those debacles blamed on? Would we have been able to come back on Saturday without the pitch invasion? Who can say? Although we have only won from behind once all season and that against doomed West Brom so it seems unlikely. We soldier on in hope rather than belief and that is a sad indictment of our board.