West Ham and Frankfurt face severe sanctions from UEFA if they failed to control their fans on Thursday night at the London Stadium.
German and UK police as well as UEFA, FA and German football authorities are powerless to prevent thousands of ticketless German fans from travelling to London or preventing them from buying home tickets on the secondary market.
West Ham have pledged to eject any Frankfurt fans in West Ham areas and will ban any Hammers fans caught selling their tickets to the Bundesliga supporters.
West Ham and Rapid Vienna were fined by UFEA when fans clashed in the Europa League group stage at the London Stadium with the return match being played behind closed doors.
UEFA imposed sanctions on West Ham for “crowd disturbances” and “throwing of objects” in Belgium. The club was fined a total of £29,260 on top of the fan ban.
After receiving a written explanation from UEFA West Ham accepted the punishment but did so reluctantly and stressed their disappointment at the ruling.
Trouble on Thursday by both sides including pitch invasions and/or crowd disturbances could result in huge fines and/or playing the return game in Germany behind closed doors.
West Ham has sent a message to all supporters warning that all perpetrators of public order offences, which includes pitch encroaching and other recent incidents of throwing objects and the use of pyrotechnics, will receive lengthy stadium bans and further possible legal sanctions.
Let’s say, I’m honoured to be associated with a European semi final, but if I find myself in the proximity of a German fan, I will ignore my father’s wishes, and invite him to a beer afterwards, come what may.
Yes, there were fines for the trouble at the home game against Rapid Vienna, but the away game was behind closed doors because Austria went into a lockdown for COVID, not because of any crowd issues at previous games.
If I recall correcgtly they said our fans wouldnt be allowed in and then covid stopped it anyway