West Ham will need to decide how to fairly allocate two thousand tickets for the ‘Ghost’ game between West Ham and Manchester United at the London Stadium.

The game has been moved to an evening kick-off at 5.30 pm but remains on Saturday 5th December in just eight days time.

The club is waiting for guidance from the Premier League and the Sports Grounds Safety Authority but there will be precious little time to arrange a ballot and send out electronic golden tickets for the game a week next Saturday.

The ballot will be run by the Irons ticketing partner TicketMaster who previously had software issues with away ballots so it could be challenging considering the complex and bespoke criteria. The ballot will need to exclude any season ticket holder who chose option 3 or anyone who lives in tier 3 area who will not be allowed to travel.

Previously when supporters were due to return in October the club had suggested breaking down the ballot by categories so Corporate hospitality Club London, Bondholders, Disability season ticket holders along with the five different general season ticket bands would each get a proportion of the available ballot tickets depending on their proportion of the overall season ticket holder base.

Another option is to just make a general ballot from all eligible season ticket holders regardless of their ticket category.

Whatever the club decides it needs to be transparent, fair and communicated effectively and quickly to allow time for supporters to make plans.