Blind Hammer is disappointed at the BBC’s low profile reporting on West Ham historic win
You might have missed the historic West Ham story last night unless you persevered down the BBC’s Football Web site.
It appears far down their football headlines, below the Everton v Newcastle reports, a routine clash which although important for Everton can hardly be described as historic.
In contrast West Ham’s win against Sevilla was genuinely historic.
A few things.
- Sevilla has won this tournament four times out of the last eight seasons.
- They are also the most successful club in the history of this competition, outranking all other English sides since its inception.
- West Ham are the first /only English team to beat Sevilla in this competition.
- Sevilla have not lost a European tie in which they had a first leg lead since 1981 and
- This same period, 41 years, is the time since West Ham were last in the quarter finals of a European competition.
So this is genuinely a historic win for West Ham.
I cannot imagine that if any of the normal top six that the BBC slavishly follow had beaten Sevilla to advance to the last eight of the second most important European Competition that they would have reported it as an afterthought.
The BBC seem stuck in the past of assumptions about the size of West Ham and their increasing profile.
They still have to catch up with the new realities of the support our club is attracting.
I am told West Ham sold out their own ticket allocation of 55,000 against Sevilla. They also took 5,000 supporters to the first leg in Sevilla. In contrast I am told Sevilla sold only 900 tickets for the away leg at the London Stadium tonight.
I struggle to see how the Everton game was bigger.
Everton have averaged 38,00 for their games this season. West Ham have average over 57,000.
In fact West |Ham in terms of attendances are now the 3rd best supported team in the Premier League, outstripping teams like Liverpool and Manchester City. When planning permission is agreed the London Stadium capacity will increase further to 66,000.
West Ham sell out nearly all their home fixtures- the failure to reach 60,000 capacity due to away teams not always selling their allocation.
Average home attendances Premier League top seven.
1. Manchester United 72,865
2. Arsenal 59,673
3 West Ham 57,410
4 Tottenham Hot spur 55,060
5Liverpool FC53,017
6 Manchester City 52,633
7Newcastle United 45,124
Wake up BBC!
David Griffith
Good point well made David and as usual the BBC are well off the pace – just lazy and complacent journalism
I also saw BBCs alternative reality headlines, but sadly it’s nothing new. Match of the Day when analysing the West Ham match inevitably have a punter who talks of Declan Rice being on the verge of exiting the Hammers for a ” bigger club ” as a matter of course which is a complete lack of respect. Someone at the BBC loathes West Ham, and the more we improve the less they like it. Well that’s just something they will have to get used to .
Sadly the BBC has slowly become an IRRELEVANT and DYSFUNCTIONAL organisation to the majority of people who they are meant to serve.
Out of touch and well past its sell-by date the BBC has even sunk to the depths of pursuing previously exempt pensioners from paying the licence fee.
The organisation has most definitely lost touch with its audience on every level and in my opinion, has long lost its worldwide credibility.
Not sure we should be surprised David the establishment don’t like anyone threatening the status quo, the reffing of our European match a classic example, lots of soft decisions to our opponents only a minute of injury time each half to benefit a tired but favoured opponent. In the PL as usual we are near the bottom of bad decisions table where the old top 6 get lots of soft penalties and free kicks in dangerous areas we get very few about 20% of what we should get as they know we are a big threat at set pieces. This behaviour is what we will have to overcome if we want to establish ourselves COYI!!!