West Ham United’s largest supporters’ group, Hammers United, have begun organising protests and boycotts in a bid to force co-owner David Sullivan and vice-chair Karren Brady out of their positions.
The first demonstration will take place on Marshgate Lane, marching up to the Directors’ Entrance at the London Stadium before the Crystal Palace match. After that, Hammers United are encouraging fans to boycott the clash with Brentford on October 20th.
The protests are designed to turn up the pressure on the club’s hierarchy and demand change at the top.
I would encourage readers to visit the Hammers United website for full details of why their members and many supporters as a whole have lost patience. But the list of grievances is long — and damning. Fans point to broken promises from the move away from Upton Park, poor recruitment, embarrassing PR gaffes, and a lack of accountability at board level.
No ‘no more BS’ campaign is gaining momentum
The 10-point plan used to justify leaving the Boleyn Ground has been left in tatters. And the failure to strengthen properly on deadline day has only added to the anger, though Hammers United campaign was planned well before the window closed.
Key grievances include:
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Selling the Boleyn and moving fans into a rented athletics bowl.
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Ruined badge, ignored heritage, and “history starts today” slogans.
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Broken promises on a “world-class team” as top players are sold off.
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A poor training ground, repeated PR disasters, and matchday experience branded the worst in the league.
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Financial excuses (PSR) while admitting the club still needs outside funding.
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Fear of yet another relegation fight under the current regime.
Their message is clear: “Brady and Sullivan must go — demos, marches and action until they’re gone.”
Seem to be a fair few of the boards PR department posting on here today. Dudley can’t help but make excuses for our perennial parasites. NOW is exactly the right time to protest the board, their underinvestment and lack of backing for THEIR manager, the Paqueta slurs and their utter antipathy towards the fans demands we raise our voices and banners demanding change in the boardroom.
Complaining about a badge that is now closer to the original than the one they want back is embarrassing when considering the seriousness of other issues.
I agree with the more positive posts in this chain. It’s time to get behind the team and the manager. Negativity and protests will simply harm any progress made towards a more balanced and creative squad. Although I’m not happy with the stadium layout, or the badge, or some of the poor management we’ve witnessed over many years, we are just seeing signs of change in the squad that deserve great support: Paquetá back to his best, Bowen on fire, Summerville unstoppable, several new energetic signings, 3 or 4 academy graduates who’ll look ready for significant time on the pitch. And an aging striker wanting to prove a point. Change in senior management will come through strong support of the team and the club – This encourages dialogue and ways forward. Protest – and problems without giving solutions – tends to bring decline. It will discourage investors. It discourages disgruntled fans from returning. Back the team. Less misery. No boycotts. Marching, yes, up the league!
Boycotting games would have minimal effect as the vast majority are now season ticket holders. I gave up my season ticket back in the Bond Scheme days of the Brown regime. If you want to protest about something there are children being starved to death in Gaza, protest about that
What a redundant bunch of fake fans.. We HAVE had a successful window, we addressed the keeper situation, we addressed the back line, we addressed the lack of speed in the midfield, we are addressing the aging squad that Moyes assembled. Hopefully with these additions we have now allowed our strikers the opportunity to not have to track back as much, and do their job scoring.. The biggest issue may have been the tardiness of the action of the board to bring players in, but FFS lets see how we perform after the International break before throwing the toys out of the bathtub yet again….
This only happens when we’re losing games and it’s mostly driven from people who don’t go to games anymore since we left Upton Park. We’re never going back to Upton Park. Fans of rival clubs, media pundits etc love all this stuff. They love jumping on the bandwagon, telling every West Ham have got a rubbish stadium with a bad atmosphere etc. well that’s not what you hear from the players who want to come and play in it. It’s not what you hear from the kids who’ve grown up in the stadium either. Plenty of fans are sick to the back teeth with all these protests whenever we have a bad run of games.
Long overdue
I gave up my season ticket because of them, refuse to line their pockets. Hope this protest leads to the best outcome for the club. The stadium is actually a decent stadium (from the outside) just poorly designed internally for watching football and creating atmosphere. We are run poorly as a club though and the board has a tendency to shoot itself in the foot with bad strategy and poor communication am sure there must be some professional owners out there ?
Onwards and upwards COYI!!!
You’re not lining their pockets you’re lining the pockets of the club and the money the club has the better signings we can afford. So really you’re just mugging off the fans.
Agree with a lot said, but no way I’m boycotting Brentford game. We will certainly need 3 points and should get behind the players
Fantastic news. Let’s hope for a huge turnout. COYI
What a load of rubbish. The club needs support not negativity. We brought in some good players in this transfer window and off loaded some dead wood. Instead of whining and making fools of yourself. Support the club by getting behind them. I have been a hammer for 64 years and yes I miss the Boylyn. But it will always be coyi for me.
Well said Trevor; and if you are the Hockley Trevor I hope you are keeping well?
Absolutely agree. That’s what it’s all about. I’m Fed up with the all the negative nonsense too.
Spot on!!
SB out
The fans have not been united for 5 or 6 years thanks to the bull that sullivan puts in the media, this has to stop.
It’s now time for the fans to unite to get sullivan out and bring our once great club back to the fans.
Sullivan and Brady are fair game for heavy criticism — though it is Sullivan who really calls all shots. Considering its location, stadium capacity, and size of supporter base ,the club should be doing a lot better, and certainly should not be involved in serial relegation threats. It’s difficult to see sustained success under Sullivan, and it’s that time he went.
But the list of grievances by Hammers United contains some wrong thinking and some petty nonsense. Hankering after the Boleyn shows a lack of ambition for the club, which would have had no chance of moving up a gear had it not moved to a much larger stadium. Upton Park was the scene of 36 years of underachievement from 1980, and some terrible teams and seasons — like those under Grant and Roeder. The atmosphere there was nothing to write home about when the team was floundering — which was often. The Terence Brown regime was at least as bad as Sullivan’s.
All the nonsense about the badge, stewarding, and rettractable seating etc is hot air whingeing. The worst matchday experience in the PL ? Who says so ,and based on what criteria ? And we are not odds on for relegation.
Potter has what it takes to be a good manager, given support and a bit of luck. The window buys may not have been stellar, but other clubs achieve top half finishes from players who are no better on paper. Hopefully the confidence building Forest win is something to build on, and that will happen. Now is not a good time to stir the pot all over again, let’s wait and see. I for one will not be boycotting the Brentford game, and I doubt that many will. Let’s wait and see, at least until Xmas.
Do you think we would get players coming to us if still at Boleyn. I loved the place but we would be a very small ground now compared to most other stadiums. Players like a big audience not a 32000 seat one. I agree we could do a lot better with our training ground. Overall I’m happy with the new recruits and as long as we give our youngsters a chance instead of JWP then I think we will have a good season. Certainly don’t think a demonstration is going to help and could upset the new players.
Although I agree with alot of the things begin said here I can’t see this will improve matters and the timing is poor to say the least. We just won our first competive game of the season and should be supporting the team and it’s new members at this point without the distraction of other things that are going on in the club. Ok so the demo outside the ground is fine, but as for not going to support the players this is poor. It is not their fault and need full support at this point and for several weeks as the new players settle in.
Seriously, something stinks at West Ham we need a investigative journalist to forensically interrogate the accounts because we seem to rely on loan’s and the never, never! Where is all the revenue going because this transfer window net spend is something between £20m/£40m and Sullivan and the Board are always pleasing poverty! You can’t seriously expect supporters to move to the LS and tolerate this level of incompetence, year on year, it needs to change either the majority shareholder does the decent thing because it’s abundantly clear his heart is no longer it and he’s not intention of personally investigating in the club and sells up or the board as a whole have a vote of confidence and remove him, if that’s feasible but enough is enough, time for change, new energy and governance. 15 year’s of broken promises and decline.
Bit late if you’ve been silly enough to buy a season ticket. I sympathise, but there’s no surprise here, is there ? They already have out of you what they want. Especially considering it’s not exactly the first time the club has pulled the same stunts. If you have a principled stance on this kind of thing then grow a pair and don’t commit to buying a ticket at all. I done it years ago, never regretted it since. It’s not only the owners that disrespect you, it’s also the players that demand the wages and contracts but don’t put the effort in.
As someone with a season ticket I don’t want to go back to the days of the Burnley game. Look if you don’t like the stadium, the owners, the walk to the ground, the football etc etc, stay way. I’d much rather have a stadium full of die hard supporters with a good atmosphere.
Who would pay the few £100s million for a club with assets of:
A couple of decent players.
A large fan base.
An old training facility in Dagenham
We do not own a stadium.
Players can be sold and not replaced (as per the last couple of years).
Nobody will invest currently
Catch 22 for the fans, same old story
Remember the Icelanders ?
Just when we need a bit of calm and to focus on supporting the players on the pitch; we get another manufactured protest from the usual agitators. If you really want a change of ownership you’d do better identifying likely purchasers and encouraging them to do so. Rather then producing a toxic atmosphere which won’t change anything but will disrupt the teams performance and poison what we have of a match day atmosphere.
Spot on, mate. Plenty of good stuff happening (and some bad) with the current lot, and let’s be honest, the Hammers are no strangers to a bit of chaos. So, let’s back the boys—there’ll always be some moaners, no matter what we do. They wouldn’t be happy even if we won the league! Up the Irons, COYI!
“Poison what we have”
Mate we’re,already poisonous…1 win does not make things right!
Toxic fans holding us back. Celebrate the win.
Couldn’t agree more…
Use of ‘the usual agitators’ indicates to me that you’ve a full understanding of the historical hatred toward Sullivan &co. whereas the aforementioned have little idea of what is involved in trying to run a bath,let alone a football club…?!
Put the energy into supporting the team…
Let them repay your ‘encouragement’ by getting the results we all want & feel we deserve…
The club itself would then be viewed as more of an asset and valued accordingly where the current ownership may consider selling at some point…
I’d like to believe that my train of thought is logical and that it follows a process. But as much as I would like new owners of this club, the only answer is to attract new owners. I’m not sure that this would be the best way to attract these new owners, as it will probably distract and upset the team, the club, negative reporting in the media [who seem to love a West Ham implosion], and the share value. Also, this might become a purchase to avoid for potential investors. So I have to agree with you, Legin, as this isn’t making too much sense to me right now, and it doesn’t seem like too much has evolved since the last attempts to get rid of them.
Agreed. I hate all the toxic nonsense from the same old same old, year after year, yada yada yada. Granted, things are far from rosy, but turning the London Stadium into a theatre of hate aint gonna make the team perform any better. Get behind ’em big styly on matchday! Especially if they go behind! A day out at the footie is supposed to be fun!
For me you’ve summed it up in the last sentence, Steve; a day out at the footie is supposed to be fun. All of this disruption and protests means it is not. Arguaby on facts (not emotion) Sullivan (with Gold) are the best owners we have ever had; unfortunatley (as with the country as a whole) many see the past through rose tinted glasses. I may be approaching seventy but I see the future wearing a pair of them and I’d much prefer an ownership that keeps us solvent, rather than a sugar daddy that chucks millions in then gets bored. We won a major trophy not that long ago; the agitators did for that manager and it’s been a screw-up since, but we have an opportunity to see what happens for us and Potter with his own team. A proper screw-up is Manchester United and their toxic ownership; I don’t want to see West Ham go down that route as much as I’m not a big fan of Sullivan.
Well said, Legin, you obviously remember good old Terrance Brown, then. I wonder what today’s generation would make of him?
In today’s world, misery is a money-making business, and it is injected into everything, including football.
There I am on an UNBELIEVABLE high, supporting the team that I love, only to be brought back to earth with this nonsensical conundrum.
How do you get someone to sell something that they own, whilst you’re trying to destroy it at the same time?
I haven’t worked that one out either.
Yep, quite so. Asking an “owner” to “resign”… sigh.
By all means find someone with 500 million and ask them to buy out. But that isn’t quite so catchy,is it.
Spot on mate
How do you force the largest shareholder out of his position on the board? The only way to do thar is to buy him out. Have people thought this through?
Sullivan caves into fan pressure. Losing money through boycotting games is the only way!
So your idea is that if fans boycott games he, the largest shareholder, will give up his position on the board? You do understand how the economic impact of a few thousand empty seats for a few games is trivial compared with his asset holding in the club? And when there is less money guess where it will show up – less money in the next transfer window, but perhaps that is what your aim is?
I remember what went before this Board and trust me it was not pretty. The Icelanders and those who were only interested in sucking the money out of the club. This Board is a bunch of angels in comparison. Let’s leave well enough alone.
Exactly. We will get the Glazers after they have finished gutting ManU to support their NFL franchise.
Mate, the Icelandic owners went bankrupt. They spent for the team….these lot are the leeches! BS out!
I understand the sentiment but trust me this lot have spent more than the icelandics ever spent mate.
Every point Hammers United made is valid. Time for change is well overdue, the current thinking of this board is outdated and other,with respect,smaller clubs have overtaken us with their modern approach and professional organisation. We stumble from pillar to post,continuously making bad choices through bad planning. We find it difficult to deal in the transfer market because of our boards disrespect to other clubs and low-balling tactics and of course this penny pinching has lost us many a good player.
The only way the board will relinquish their position is by being hit in the pocket and boycotting has to be sustained and not the odd match here and there which they will ride out and commit to distant memory,we have been here before. The backlash has to hit home. ⚒️⚒️⚒️⚒️
And how will boycotting matches improve the confidence, morale and resolve of the team exactly?
Gonzo this is the only positive from the transfer window. Get these parasites out of our club
Might do better to call themselves Hammers Devided rather than Hamners United. Since they are more likely to sow division, meaning to deliberately create conflict, mistrust, or hostility within a group that was otherwise more united.
“Devided”?
s b out