West Ham fans banned from Europa League tie versus Rapid Vienna
By Alex Smith
West Ham fans have been banned from the Europa League game versus Rapid Vienna next week following crowd trouble at the previous match against Genk.
UEFA have accused West Ham fans of “throwing objects” and causing “crowd disturbances” while in Belgium, therefore receiving a one match ban.
The ban seems especially harsh regarding the timing given the fact that tickets for Hammers fans had already sold out. Also, many had already booked flights, hotels and Covid-19 tests too.
West Ham fans have been banned from the away trip to Rapid Vienna, giving travelling fans less than a week’s notice, due to “crowd disturbances” in the previous Europa League game versus Genk.
The club have also been fined just under £25,500 (€30,000) for the disturbances and another £3,817 (€4,500) for the throwing of the objects.
There was also anti-Semitic songs chanted on a flight back to London by a minority of fans but West Ham have seemingly not been banned because of this.
Perhaps, UEFA don’t want a repeat of the scenes at the London Stadium as West Ham beat rapid Vienna 2-0 in a match marred by trouble coming from the travelling Austrian section that resulted in them being banned for their away trip to Dinamo Zagreb.
West Ham have released a statement to supporters saying they want further clarification from UEFA.
Our writer, Alex Smith, shares his opinion on West Ham fans being banned:
This seems an incredibly harsh decision from UEFA, with the timing the worse thing about it. West Ham’s away match versus Genk was on the 4th November meaning UEFA took over 10 days to make this decision with the knowledge that Hammers fans were arranging hotels, flights and the club itself was selling match tickets. Surely, a statement letting fans know they were investigating the issue would have been convenient.
It also seems harsh as there were very little, if any, reports of trouble besides the mindless fools chanting abuse at a fellow passenger on the plane. A flare ended up on the pitch (this didn’t delay the game) after one of Said Benrahma’s goals but it is hardly a banning offence and a flare at a UEFA match isn’t exactly a rare sight.
In a recent Champions League game between Ajax and Borussia Dortmund there was near enough a full fireworks display inside the stadium, big enough to give Central London’s New Year’s Eve show a run for it’s money, but they won’t be getting banned.
But what do we expect from UEFA, this is an organisation that just two years ago banned fans of the Bulgaria National Team from just TWO home matches, one suspended for a year, after a large group of their fans did Nazi salutes as well as directing monkey chants at players including Tyrone Mings that led to the match against England being stopped twice.
Or, how about when England played Hungary earlier this year in a FIFA World Cup qualifier. At the time, UEFA had banned Hungary fans for racial and homophobic abuse. However, this match fell under the jurisdiction of FIFA rather than UEFA and a capacity crowd was allowed to enter. As sad as it is to say, it was hardly surprising when Raheem Sterling and Jude Bellingham were racially abused. UEFA claimed they were powerless in getting the ban to be carried over – that’s the kind of organisation they can be.
West Ham have already made it through to the knock-out stages of the Europa League and are looking to top the group with a win in Vienna.