On Thursday the London Assembly opened a new investigation into the policing and security of the London Stadium. Those present as witnesses to give evidence were the CEO and a director of stadium owners E20 Stadium LLP and LLDC, the CEO of the operators London Stadium 185, the Met Police football commander, director from Westfield shopping centre, Newham council in the guise of the chair of the Security Advisory Group and Karren Brady representing West Ham.
The police commander revealed there have been 27 arrests relating to West Ham games in and around the London Stadium this season of which 18 of those have made inside the stadium. Nine of the eighteen fans arrested inside the stadium were West Ham fans. No court football banning orders has been issued so far this season but two banning orders are in progress which if successful will join the 38 historic banning orders issued to West Ham fans.
The police in conjunction with the club and stadium operators are looking to identify and arrest 18 further supporters from the Chelsea game as part of operation ‘Stow’. One would assume photos of these individuals will be published soon in the media.
Karren Brady confirmed that 71 West Ham ticket holders have received stadium bans of various length although she admitted some had been overturned on appeal but she stressed investigations continued to ban more fans involved in the Chelsea game but stressed identification was difficult as they had to track them back to their seat or turnstile entry.
The police confirmed that they deployed 520 police officers for the Chelsea game and have spent over £426,170 excluding overtime policing West Ham home games at the London Stadium this year. This compares to £425,426 for the whole of the 2015/2016 season at the Boleyn Ground and £429,284 for the 2014/2015 before that. The police are unable to bill any services outside the stadium footprint so the majority of these costs are unrecoverable.
The police have billed operators London Stadium 185 just £43,350 for special police services for the Stoke game and will also be providing a similar private policing service and bill for the Arsenal game today. The commander confirmed this would be reviewed on a game by game basis. Previously West Ham were charged £45,874 by the Met police for last season for policing inside the Boleyn Ground stadium and £98,901 the season before that.
The police were criticised by London Assembly members for not having a statement of intent in place with West Ham United or the stadium operators and also having no formal information sharing agreement with the club and/or operator, both of which are recommended in the college of policing guide as good practise of football policing.
You can watch the full two hour meeting from Thursday below:
