Why the West Ham protesters are so angry
With a demonstration set for today, fans feel the relationship with the club hierarchy is broken
The trust has gone
Hammers United and West Ham United Independent Supporters Association both turned down an invitation to attend a meeting with club co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold, and vice-chairman Karren Brady this week.
“West Ham are the only club in the Premier League that does not engage with the democratically elected independent fan groups,” said Paul Colborne, chairman of Hammers United. “They have an official supporters board instead that, in our view, has been used as a buffer and an excuse.”
West Ham have promised to introduce a democratic election process as part of their revamp of the official supporters board, but Sue Watson, chair of the WHUISA, said: “The devil will be in the detail. Many fans find it difficult to believe anything the club says because the trust has been eroded.
“All we have ever wanted is for the club to meet with ourselves, Hammers United and a representative from the Football Supporters’ Association and yet they have never agreed to it.”
So, why has the trust gone? “David Gold said the seats at the new stadium would not be further away than they had been at Upton Park,” Colborne said. “We went to the reservation centre to choose our seats, but what we were shown there bears no resemblance to what we ended up with.
“Sullivan and Gold also love to tell people that they do not take a salary. Maybe not, but they have taken £18.6million in interest payments on their loan.”
The role of Karren Brady
West Ham’s vice-chairman faced renewed scrutiny last month when the club’s accounts revealed she had received a £238,000 bonus to take her earnings to £1.136million.
Both Hammers United and WHUISA want Brady to either stand down or be sacked.
“We are very clear that we want the club to replace Karren Brady with a newly appointed full-time chief executive officer whose sole focus is on West Ham,” Watson said. “We do not believe somebody who has so many other jobs should be in her position at the club.”
West Ham insist Brady’s role is all-encompassing and full-time, but Colborne said: “Just look at some of her social media activity over the past couple of years. West Ham were 15 minutes away from a massive relegation game against Stoke City and she was plugging her new TV show. There was also the picture she posted on Twitter of the Arsenal cheese board and desserts when West Ham were being thrashed at the Emirates.”
Brady is credited by West Ham with helping the club move into 18th place in the latest Deloitte Football Money League, but Watson added: “When we asked our members what their biggest issues with the club were, the role of Karren Brady received the most feedback.
“Her newspaper column not only annoys the fans, but has also upset rival clubs and potentially cost us business, as was the case with Leicester City. She also criticised one of our own players, Robert Snodgrass, who has come back from his loan at Aston Villa and been brilliant.
“If her main responsibility is to grow the business side of the club, then why has she felt it appropriate to comment on the football side?”
The London Stadium
Colborne was banned from the London Stadium for planting a corner flag into the centre circle during West Ham’s game against Burnley two years ago.
He insists he will never step back into the “soulless bowl” under the current ownership and claimed thousands of traditional West Ham fans had been driven away by the move to Stratford.
“In my opinion, the owners have killed a football club with the move,” said Colborne, who has supported West Ham for 50 years. “There are away fans everywhere, who sit brazenly in the home areas wearing their club colours and the stewards do nothing about it.”
West Ham claim to have written to fans who purchased a generalsale ticket for last month’s home game against Liverpool to remind them of their responsibilities and warn that non-west Ham fans in home sections would be removed.
Despite a price rise for this season, West Ham sell the cheapest season ticket in the Premier League, but Watson believes the problems extend further than just the London Stadium.
“Look at our training ground,” Watson said. “I sat up watching transfer-deadline day. The guy at ours was surrounded by temporary buildings and standing in front of a garden trellis.”
The latest accounts showed the club spent £22 million on infrastructure over the past four years. But Watson added: “Leicester City spent £100 million on their training ground, which is not comparable to what we are doing. The club recently advertised a position for a volunteer academy scout, what does that tell you about the commitment to infrastructure?”
What do protesters want?
Hammers United and WHUISA, who hope that 5,000 will attend today’s “stroll” towards the London Stadium ahead of the game against Southampton, agree that their ultimate goal would be to force a change of ownership, but there are other, more immediate, changes they want.
“We believe that the board have seriously underestimated us and that we can force real, big change,” Colborne said. “But before then a victory would be to see the official supporters board scrapped or overhauled, as would the removal of Karren Brady. But that would not constitute us calling off further protests.”
Watson said: “In the short term, stop all this wriggling and agree to a meeting with us, Hammers United and a representative of the FSA. That would be a good start.”
‘The owners have killed a football club with the move’