West Ham is scheduled to play a forthcoming Europa League group match against Rapid Vienna and their fans are banned to attend, according to UEFA, Sky Sports football news confirmed. Due to crowd disturbances perpetrated by a part of West Ham’s traveling support in Genk earlier this month, UEFA has sanctioned the club.
A segment of the traveling support was involved in crowd disturbances during West Ham’s last Europa League encounter, against Genk in Belgium on November 4. Although the football match ended in a 2-2 draw, West Ham was charged under Article 16(2)(h) of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations for crowd disturbances and Article 16(2)(b) for objects thrown by away fans.
As a result, the UEFA Control, Ethics, and Disciplinary Body have ruled that the Hammers would be unable to bring any fans to Austria for their match against Rapid Vienna on November 25. In total, the club was fined €34,500.
West Ham said in a statement that they 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”.
“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.
“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.”
David Moyes’ side leads Group H with 10 points from their first four games, meaning a point in Vienna would be enough to guarantee progression to the knockout stage. On December 9, West Ham will play second-placed Dinamo Zagreb in their last Group H match.
