18 Comments

Fights break out at London Stadium

stewardsClaretandHugh have received multiple eye witness accounts of fights and trouble at today’s Premier League game against Watford. The main areas of trouble appear to have been in block 127 in the corner of Bobby Moore Lower and the East Stand at the London Stadium and in the Sir Trevor Brooking Upper stands between the divide of the away and home fans. One eye witness told ClaretandHugh they saw six independent fights break within the Stadium this afternoon. Others feared for the safety of their children calling the current stewarding completely inadequate.

TV cameras around the world zoomed in the troubles in the lower section 127 with up to eight fans ejected. He is claimed the trouble started when one fan pushed another fan who pushed back until a fight broke out involving others. Stewards attempted to break up the fight and one eye witness alleges that one steward had one West Ham fan by his throat.

ClaretandHugh received more reports at half time after Watford fans threw empty plastic beer bottles into West Ham fan areas enflaming the situation more.

The main incident went off when Watford scored their third goal and celebrated yards away from the faces West Ham fans in the upper tier of the Sir Trevor Brooking stand to rub it in. One witness who purchased two tickets in the ballot was sitting next to the away fans with his five year old son when fighting broke out. He claims there were just nine stewards on duty to enforce the narrow segregation.  Unlike the Boleyn  Ground or other Premier League ground there was no large area of netting usually utilised in separation of rival fans and stewards struggled to  control the disorder. Police were invited in to the stadium after 20 minutes but the trouble had calmed down by that point. The game was categorised as a Cat C with small risks.

Other witnesses claim Watford fans were freely allowed to walk through the West Ham concourse after the final whistle despite the previous incident in the second half and West Ham fans were equally allowed to walk in the away concourse area.

Friend of the site and former West Ham DJ, Leon Hyde sent us this video of the second half incident.

Another video of the trouble in section 127 shows the stand out with stewards. Warning contains strong language.

 

About Sean Whetstone

I am Season Ticket Holder in West stand lower at the London Stadium and before that, I used to stand in the Sir Trevor Brooking Lower Row R seat 159 in the Boleyn Ground and in the Eighties I stood on the terraces of the old South Bank. I am a presenter on the West Ham Podcast called MooreThanJustaPodcast.co.uk. A Blogger on WestHamTillIdie.com a member of the West Ham Supporters Advisory Board (SAB), Founder of a Youtube channel called Mr West Ham Football at http://www.youtube.com/MrWestHamFootball, I am also the associate editor here at Claret and Hugh. Life Long singer of bubbles! Come on you Irons! Follow me at @Westhamfootball on twitter

18 comments on “Fights break out at London Stadium

  1. One eye witness told claret & Hugh they saw at least 6 incidents.I read that in the express about an hour ago from a Twitter user.

  2. I am ****ed off with karren Brady and her gang they have been warned so many times they are just waiting for something terrible to happen and then blame it on the supporters. At half time I spoke to the supervisor of the stewards to see if I could go out for a smoke at halftime as we did against Bournemouth he said no I asked why and his words were them lot up there make it up when it suits them as they go along

    • Yes bill it wasn’t listed in the brand handbook lol 😉

      • It’s all a bit embarrassing. 2 up and turning on the style, then 4 for Watford. The embarrassment by the way was not on the pitch. Stand up, sit down, they celebrated in front of us. Really, get real and let’s pretend for a second we are adults. But no, the stewarding is poor, didn’t they know we were animals and need the occasional cattle prod. Shame on us !

  3. These stewards are absolutely clueless ! Until there’s a proper segregation in the away end
    There is going to be chaos ! Man U , spuds , Chelsea , Everton , open warfare , so much for the new brand then , we the supporters knew there is going to be trouble with away fans , Brady and co didn’t give it a thought ! You never know we may get millwall if we beat Accrington Stanley , now won’t that be fun , ffs , Fukin clueless 😉
    Bring in the old brigade from Upton Park and take it out of these Fukin idiots hands , this is West Ham not a kindergarten 🙂

  4. We watched the guy in the second video in the grey top standing by himself in the corner of the East Stand.
    He wouldn’t sit down and was singing to the crowd behind the goal and showing how full on West Ham he was and adamant he was not going to sit down.
    He should now be banned for life and needs to decide whether or not to stand up at future matches as he watches on tv.
    Could always go to Orient or Hackney Marshes they allow standing there.
    Was it worth it?

  5. I saw 5 or 6 different punch ups mostly by our own fans, I saw some 25 – 30 year old moron attacking some 50 – 60 year olds it was an absolute disgrace, I was in TBL block 125 I also saw what looked to be a solitary West Ham fan get in amongst the Watford fans and call them on. It was by far more disappointing than the result to see the meaningless violence and yes the stewards are way out of their depth but this is our fans acting like animals mostly for no recognisable reason.

  6. Hugh you are always claiming friends of the site in high places at the club and sending Happy Birthday messages to the David’s time for you to get an interview with one of them on this appalling situation. I’m seriously considering not going to the Southampton game.

  7. If there is no specific away fans’ section what does the club expect? At the Boleyn there was pretty much no chance of fighting inside the ground. Segregation and stewarding always prevented it.

    • The stewarding and the segregation is the responsibility of the stadium operators London Stadium 185. We have made contact with the French company and will be speaking to them soon on the situation.

      • This is the ‘excuse’ used time after time for problems at the Stadium and it’s environs – ‘it’s not us it’s London Stadium 185’ – that’s not good enough – West Ham have a duty of care in ensuring the safety of all Supporters at their Home games, they can’t just pass the buck – West Ham are only too happy to take our money – they owe us respect, care, and the expectation of a safe environment!

        It’s time for West Ham to get a grip on this ‘anarchy’ and lay down the law to London Stadium 185, tell them some home truths and demand they put their house in order!

  8. Time for Lady Brady to stop congratulating herself and face the issue. The London Stadium is a car crash waiting to happen.

  9. The majority of the incidents so far have been amongst west ham fans. This didn’t happen at the Boleyn because these people sat in their own silos with friends and now are in amongst completely different people , families, kids etc but continue to behave in the same way. That’s party of the issue in my view. However there was shall a much larger police prescence inside UP than at LS.

    • I witnessed an incident between West Ham and Bournemouth fans at the Bournemouth game.

      By default there are no police in the stadium except observers in the control room. Police need to be invited to the stadium island and the stadium operators would need to pay for them

      • There were alterations between west ham and waited fans today also but the majority (especially today and Astra) were among home fans. You obviously know the situation with the police and I think they need to be in the ground. This is only going to get worse.

  10. The whole transition is a bungled mess. Westfield hate us and so make our arrival and departure as difficult as they can, which is going to end in tears when some sanctimonious tw4t in a hi-viz jacket gets his megaphone shoved where the sun doesn’t shine.

    The stadium issues are equally badly handled; inadequate segregation and stewarding, ‘make it up as you go along’ rules (let’s open the external doors at half time for some games and not others), and mixed fan areas that ask for trouble. The rush to sell us season tickets has split up groups who have stood together at UP for years, so standers are now in with newbies who rightfully want them to sit down so they can see.

    When 20,000 fans sing ‘You can stick your f***** letter up your ar5e’ to David Gold, someone needs to realise it may not be the brightest idea to wish him a happy birthday (no matter how well deserved), on the big screens at half time. That’s just rubbing people up the wrong way for no reason. Oh, and can someone please check what goes on the screens? Like basic spelling? ‘Olympic’ indeed!

  11. I cannot agree more with most of the comments it’s an absolute joke I have been a season ticket holder for many years with my son friends and their sons in the bobby Moore lower and I think I will not be going in the foreseeable future nothing to do with us losing a game of football we all agree we have lost our club and what a time to get a letter threatening us a day before a game

  12. Hugb can you get one of your insiders or whoever about the continuous lies we have been told. We have a lovely new roof apparently but we all got wet the transport links were meant to be superb but I can get to East Ham tube station a lot quicker than stratford the Boleyn was meant to be completely backwards with its wifi but promised superb conection at the new stadium again what a load of ******** ! No more queuing for ages at the food stalls and toilets ! Complete rip off with the prices at the ground inside and out but don’t worry it’s not Westham fault again it’s an absolute joke

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