There were many bizarre claims and some heavy buck passing mentioned in the LLDC chairman Sir Peter Hendry’s letter of complaint to West Ham United over their claim that the organisation has “misled” the public.
None more so than the reminder of a one off incident during the Burnley match which he appears to blame Hammers fans for ensuring security costs have risen.
And fair play to Sam Inkersole of Football:London who points out: “It is up for debate as to why there was a lax attitude to security and stewarding in the first place, which is the job of stadium operator LS185 to oversee.”
Overlooking that side of the argument Sir Hendy, appears to take a swipe at a “small minority” of West Ham supporters for the cost increase which is now £270,000 per match.
It seems to us that he would have been better off staying away from such issues given the ridiculous statements of the main LLDC man Mayor Sadiq Khan at the time.
He said: “I understand that many West Ham fans have concerns about the club and the way it’s run but the scenes at the London Stadium were a disgrace and mindless hooliganism.
“The Safety Advisory Group recognised the stewarding was stretched significantly thanks to the volume of incidents that showed a planned and co-ordinated campaign.
“More than a dozen fights broke out in the stands between fans. 26 individuals tried to get on the pitch and 22 were stopped, four made it on. There were 150 separate incidents, 40 assaults and 50 public order offences.
“A former Upton Park steward was knocked to the ground and trampled by mindless thugs. Six of the of the 56 persons of interest have served banning orders previously.”
In reality not a single police charge was made against any individual and to describe his comments as being “over cooked” would be doing him a favour he perhaps doesn’t deserve.
The action taken by the club in banning five people for life has been the only mandatory action taken and to raise the issue again as Sir Hendry has done helps nobody.
But we are all becoming used to that from the LLDC!
‘Security costs rose because we’d been doing it on the cheap up until the Burnley game, luckily up until then no-one was seriously injured but the Burnley game exposed our incompetence’ Is what he should have said.
And apologised!
Couldn’t agree more Hugh👍
Shame about the bans though imo.
Excellent article in The Daily Fail here – https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6152649/West-Hams-bad-landlords-wasting-money.html
As an aside, I assume the ‘coin throwers’ haven’t been identified either?
Yes good article MMG, Martin Samuel being a hammers fan helps but it is about time the media rightly condemn the complete lack of ability of the LLDC to manage their finances.