By Sean Whetstone
Everything that could go wrong at the London Stadium went wrong last night and I am not just talking about what went on the pitch.
Searching on bridges was disorganised and caused many supporters to miss kick off.
That was also the reason singing could be heard during the one minute’s silence for the Leicester stadium victims as those still outside had no idea that silence was being observed.
They were skirmishes outside the London Stadium between rival supporters close to the away turnstiles before the game which led to the Met Police authorising a section 35 dispersal notice around the Olympic park.
Inside things were as bad as stewards lost control with scores of Spurs supporters in West Ham ends, some wearing Spurs shirts and scarves.
Stewards on the whole did nothing, often just moving Spurs fans to other areas within the West Ham ends.
One incident resulted in a fight between West Ham fans and a couple of Spurs fans in the wrong end which was captured on video.
Things went from bad to worst as supporters on both sides threw coins and plastic bottles across the segregation line and a Spurs fan also set off a purple smoke bomb from the upper away end.
If that wasn’t bad enough we then had to suffer two pitch invaders which demonstrated that the small army of stewards with football boots and safety glasses are pretty worthless.
Police have confirmed nine arrests, three for pitch incursion, two for racial public order offences, one for public order, two for affray and one for possession of drugs.
The troubles involved a small minority from the 50,270 capacity but I am sure the headlines will blame West Ham today.
Time to name and shame the real organisations that are actually responsible for stewarding and security!
It starts with stadium owners LLDC & E20 but also Operator London Stadium 185 and stewarding companies G4S, Wise security , Expedia and CSP. They all have some answering to do.
The stewarding was shocking last night. I sit in block 204 and there were Spurs fans with scarves there. We were telling the stewards to remove them for the spurs fans own safety. It took them 75 minutes to act. They just looked at each other aimlessly and spoke into their microphones. They are incapable and cannot make decisions.
The moron in the mask was next to us in the upper stand running up and down waving his arms up and down wearing the mask all game from the start, he was very obviously on drugs and definitely not there to watch the game, not sure how he got all the way down to the lower stand then onto the pitch without being kicked out at some point first.
It’s pretty embarrassing. The owners shouldn’t have to feel compelled to plea with grown men to behave, yet here we are again.
The searches outside, the segregation of fans and the hapless stewarding inside are all areas the club should be taking over, as alluded to by Karen Brady during her budget meeting. If any good can come out of these situations, it’s that it highlights our position and how utterly useless these clowns are at running a football stadium.
If the stewards don’t feel able to act without first consulting numerous other people what would happen in a genuine emergency ?