West Ham will issue life bans to any fans found responsible for attacking the Manchester United team coach before Tuesday’s game at Upton Park.
A window on the United team bus was smashed and the kick-off delayed by 45 minutes as a result of the trouble.
“We are aware that there were some supporters outside the Boleyn Ground who didn’t act in an appropriate way,” a club statement read.
It added: “We will work closely with both clubs and the Metropolitan Police to fully investigate these matters.”
The club statement continued: “It was an extraordinary night full of extraordinary moments in front of extraordinary fans, 99% of whom behaved impeccably and were a credit to the club.
“We have already had thousands of tweets and emails from fans to say how proud they were to be a part of such a special evening in West Ham’s history.
“However, we are aware that there were some supporters outside the Boleyn Ground who didn’t act in an appropriate way when the Manchester United team bus was damaged.
“That was not acceptable and we will work with the police to identify those responsible and ban them for life.”
That window was not smashed, the tinted wrap stuff had come away – a Man U player was sat there in plain view. I don’t condone what happened but I was on Green St by the John Lyall gates and from what I saw it’s being exaggerated. A few drunken idiots in a crowd of thousands tossing plastic beer bottles and cans, I’ve seen acts at festivals getting far worse. If it was really kicking off on Barking Rd I stand corrected.
I agree Rumsung and I have written an article what I saw and speaking to eye witnesses
The morons who dragged our club through the mire last night by breaking the law deserve all they get. Not only do I hope that the club ban them for life, but also that the police can prosecute them.
Instead of the papers lauding the team and the club for the fanatastic game and the great celebrations afterwards, the louts have given them the opportunity heap negative publicity on us.
There is no place for such mindlessness in, as Mark Noble rightly calls it, “The West Ham Family.”
Rant over.
I don’t disagree Markro but it was a very small minority and the media is tarring us all with the small brush. It is the Donald Trump school of media. The vast majority of the 35,000 were well behaved. Less than 50 fans were involved in the throwing of cans and bottles. The media is over reacting as normal and blowing this up into something bigger than it was.
Markro I’m not excusing the morons, I just wanted to get out there what I saw compared to what was going round Twitter last night and in the papers this morning. The problems were compounded by the p-poor way the police handled getting the coach in causing a massive crush. A bit of crowd control – barriers etc rather than batons – would’ve gone a long way to avoiding this.
After re-reading my last post I should emphasise that I’m not saying the police used batons just that there wasn’t any thought put into controlling the crowd
Typical policing at big football matches.They cock it up yet again.
Morons aside. I am being told that the atmosphere was one never to forget. I am so gutted I could not be part of it.
The pictures being banded about clearly show the police following the coach!?!?! Surely they should have been in front clearing the way??
I have been to many matches where the police were great but I have also been kettle for no reason too. How do they always seem to get it wrong on the big occasions?
It was chaos outside before the game – the crowds were enormous, the gates weren’t opened, Green Street traffic was a nightmare, the organisation was pathetic!
It’s easy to be wise after the event but allowing people to be drinking all day was stupid – drink and enormous crowds don’t go well together. We know it’s a tiny minority but things get quickly out of hand. We heard that there were people in the local pubs since the morning, why was this allowed to happen? There were loads of Police but they just stood about and did nothing.
Man Utd should have left their Hotel earlier, it was obvious the traffic was going to be a nightmare and it all compounded into some ugly scenes, will they never learn!
I’m glad it’s all over – an enjoyable night but the stuff around the game left you uncomfortable – roll on the Olympic Stadium!
DS was correct in saying that Manure must have known that there would be extra fans around the ground due to the occasion. They should have arrived earlier. That doesn’t excuse the d1ck heads from taking the attention away from the game. The media have always got a hard on against us & this was handed to them with a cherry on top. Wait for the FA to come down on the club like a ton of bricks. Not a great deal the club could have done about though.
Great result on the night & fitting of the occasion. Not sure about the after party mind, Bianca Westwood…??