West Ham have this evening released an official statement on the club website:

It reads: “West Ham United can confirm that we have received an email late this afternoon informing us that we are subject to sanctions from UEFA in relation to our Europa League Group H fixture against KRC Genk on Thursday 4 November.

The Club has been fined 34,500 Euros and also informed that our supporters are unable to travel for our next Europa League away fixture. 

The Club are urgently seeking clarification from UEFA, particularly given the extremely short notice of the sanction, which will impact our supporters who have already bought tickets and made arrangements to travel to Austria our match at Rapid Vienna in just over a week.

We are surprised to receive these sanctions and disappointed for the fans who have behaved impeccably and supported the team throughout and will now be unable to travel to the next away Europa League fixture.

The Club has requested the full written reasons from UEFA regarding these sanctions and have asked them to expedite our request given that further delay could impact supporters once again.  

The Club fully appreciates that supporters will have booked return travel and accommodation in Austria and are stressing this in our dialogue with UEFA. We will update supporters as soon as we are able to with further information.

Finally, we would like to assure those supporters who have already purchased one of the 1,700 tickets that sold out our allocation for this game that they will be automatically refunded by the Club should UEFA rule the sanctions stand and that they relate to next week’s match in Austria.”

Claret and Hugh says: This holding statement from the club probably goes as far as they dare without facing more sanctions or possibly charges for bringing the game into disrepute. It is refreshing to see the strong words ‘surprised and disappointed’ within the carefully worded statement and also that the club recognises publicly how well fans have behaved in the European competition to date.  In their call for full written reasons from UEFA to be expedited, it is hoped the club will continue to put pressure on the European Football body right up until next Wednesday.  UEFA has entered a slippery slope if West Ham fans have been banned for the isolated flare incident alone as that could see most European games being banned from away fans in the future should that be enforced by UEFA. Whether UEFA will suspend these sanctions or buckle under pressure remains to be seen but the club should be seen to be backing up their fans and fighting their case until their very last breath when the game kicks off.