West Ham United have admitted their surprise at the UEFA sanctions handed to the club on Monday evening.
The club were informed by the European football governing body that no Hammers supporters will be allowed to the club’s next Europa League match as punishment for what UEFA described as “crowd disturbances” and “throwing of objects” during the match against Genk.
No further information about the incidents were provided by UEFA other than the details of the punishments which include a fine totalling £29,260, made up of £25,444 for the crowd disturbances and £3,816 for the objects being thrown.
However, it is the ban on West Ham selling tickets to their supporters for the next away match that has caused much consternation for fans and the club. With West Ham in action on Thursday, November 25 the short notice of the sanctions is set to leave hundreds if not thousands of supporters out of pocket.
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West Ham have already sold their full 1,700 allocation of tickets to away supporters for the clash and hundreds more are expected to travel to the Austrian capital without match tickets.
The club have confirmed that they will reimburse fans for their match tickets should the ban be upheld but supporters are not likely to be compensated for travel and accommodation costs.
West Ham released a statement on the matter late Monday evening expressing their shock at the sanctions and particularly the late notice the club and supporters have been given.
“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.
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“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.”
West Ham are able to appeal the sanctions from UEFA and ask for the sanctions to be suspended until their case is heard. However, should this appeal fail West Ham supporters would be banned from attending the next away match meaning the club would go into an away leg of the knockout rounds without their supporters present.
The club are waiting for a full written explanation from UEFA for the last-minute decision to ban supporters and once this has been provided will decide whether or not to appeal the sanctions.
With West Ham already qualified for the knockout stages, the club face a dilemma as to whether or not to accept the sanctions immediately or risk losing an appeal and being handicapped by the lack of away support in the knockout stages. Whatever action West Ham take, unless an appeal is successful, the supporters are set to be disappointed following UEFA’s ruling.
https://www.football.london/west-ham-united-fc/news/west-ham-appeal-uefa-ban-22178538
