The Football Association has launched an investigation into the crowd trouble that marred Wednesday night’s EFL tie between West Ham and Chelsea.
Both clubs have also promised to ban for life any supporters found guilty of wrongdoing after trouble flared towards the end of the 2-1 victory for West Ham.
“The FA is investigating crowd disturbances at last night’s EFL Cup match between West Ham United and Chelsea,” read a statement. “We are in dialogue with all relevant authorities.”
It had been a hugely exciting game but everything on the field was overshadowed by the flashpoints that occurred in stoppage time when the Chelsea supporters in the lower tier of the Sir Trevor Brooking stand made for the exit behind them.
They had to cross over a concourse and as some West Ham fans surged towards them the stewards fought to keep the rival factions apart. Objects including coins and ripped-up seats were thrown and, with a bottle-neck seeming to have formed, it all became extremely ugly for a couple of minutes.
It has been far from smooth sailing for West Ham at their new ground with various complaints having marred some of their fixtures. There have been problems with segregation and several instances of fighting. This was a new low and there will now be further questions about the venue’s capacity to handle this kind of occasion.
“Whatever happened, we are totally against it, as a club. For those kinds of things to happen, especially in England, is unacceptable,” said West Ham’s manager Slaven Bilic. “It was extremely disappointing to see the disturbances at the end of this game and we condemn such behavior.”
West Ham later released a statement that condemned “unreservedly the behavior of the individuals involved.” It added: “Whilst quickly brought under control, the club, in line with its clear zero tolerance policy, will work closely with London Stadium 185, the Metropolitan Police Service and Chelsea to identify all involved.
“London Stadium is fitted with a state of the art CCTV system which provides HD footage of every area of the ground and has led to the successful identification and subsequent banning of 23 individuals already this season. Once identified, those found to have acted improperly will be banned from attending any West Ham United fixtures for life and we will request the courts serve banning orders to prevent these individuals attending any other football.”
The Metropolitan Police has announced that seven arrests had been made. Antisocial behavior legislation was utilized prior to the match to order 30 people to disperse, the Met added.
-theguardian
