Some West Ham supporters will be held back behind a safety cordon for up to 3o minutes to allow Chelsea supporters to leave post match tomorrow evening.
An official statement on WHUFC.com says: “A cordon will be in place either side of turnstile D (away turnstile) and all away supporters will egress via the south steps towards Pudding Mill Lane Station.
The corridor from turnstile D to the south steps will be closed to home supporters for around 30 minutes during peak egress. Due to the post-match segregation, home supporters exiting podium level via turnstiles C, B and A will need to turn right on exit and walk clockwise around the stadium. Home supporters exiting podium level via turnstiles E, F and G will need to turn left on exit and walk anti-clockwise around the stadium.
The club say this decision has been made by safety “experts” and police have made the decision – not themselves which we accept.
And in their statement the club also say there is no holdback of the fans just that the rerouting allows fans to leave by a different route.
This means home supporters on the wrong side of the away supporters such as myself in block 113 in the West Stand would need to wait up to 30 minutes for the cordon to the lifted or walk anti clockwise around entire stadium to get back to the same exit point for the journey to Stratford. That would take around 20-30 minutes anyway!
The same plan was tried at the Middlesbroughgame when a cordon was put in place and home supporters were held back behind a barrier or sent the wrong way around the stadium.
The outcome was the fans doubled back along the surrounding link road and the Greenway where they met the away escort coming in the opposite direction which led to issues.
