BBC claim West Ham troubles weren’t spontaneous
Stone wrote on his Twitter account last night: “It is estimated stewards repelled 85% of the attempts to get on the pitch West Ham on Saturday. Trouble wasn’t spontaneous. It was planned, involved in excess of 100 people and was co-ordinated through mobile phones.”
Since four fans successfully invaded the London Stadium pitch Stone seems to be suggested at least twenty two others attempted to do so last Saturday.
Yesterday a statement from the Safety Advisory Board said “an unprecedented level of disorder at multiple locations across the stadium, which would have been almost impossible for any security team to manage.Whilst some issues in the security regime were identified it is recognised that the operation were stretched significantly by the scale and volume of incidents and stopped most attempted pitch incursions successfully.”
West Ham fans have been quick to point out the flaw in Stone’s social media statement. They point out it is almost impossible to get a mobile signal in the London Stadium so the mobile phone claim is dubious. At least two of the four pitch invaders have made statements claiming that their actions were not planned.
After troubles in the cup with Chelsea, last year at the London Stadium similar fanciful claims were made by journalists saying the whole thing was organised by supporters on mobile phones and said many hundreds of fans would be banned. No proof was provided on that occasion and the number of bans from that night was a fraction of what was originally reported.