Dawud reflects on another home victory as almost 10 thousand fans hold vocal protest against Sullivan and Brady before the game
Hope everyone is safe and well
Apologies but this is a longer post than usual, but I found I had a lot to say this week.
Our eldest boy attended a karate competition on last Sunday as he works his way towards completing his black belt grading in December. He needs to take part in external competitions to be able to be considered for grading.
It’s been a very long journey for him and reflecting back on when we first started karate in 2016 when he was only 6 years old, to now as a 15 year old, he has shown huge dedication to get where he is today.
Sadly the competition was a disaster as the host club who invite participants each year to this event, clearly favour students from their own network of dojos. For our son’s age group he is allowed to use contact to the face with his opponent – a light touch – that scores points unless the opponents head moves back or sideways with the force of contact.
We checked contact was allowed before his category fight started. Yes, we were told, 100% contact is allowed. He warmed up and practised this before his fight. The referee came over to the group of boys beforehand and confirmed contact was allowed 100%.
Then a coach from one of the affiliated clubs said that there were 3 boys who were wearing head guards and contact should not be allowed. The ref then changed the rules there and then. 3 new participants had joined the category group, without notice and at the last minute the rules were changed.
Our son had his first fight with one of these boys, and with the rules as they should have been, he would have won his fight within the first few moments with some excellent head kicks. But was given warnings. Instead, he lost his bout to a final head kick from his opponent that contacted his head – which was not allowed – and when we complained, the refs said they didn’t see it. I had videoed the whole bout and said we had proof.
What followed was utterly unprofessional, clearly showed bias towards the opponent and the affiliated club and we made our complaints to the event organisers who said we just need to move on as the bout was over. Our son was gutted, and rightly so. His sensei was angry and rightly so. It was clear cheating. What we found out was that the 3 opponents with head gear were from a lower age group category and our son should not have been fighting them. This was not an isolated incident and we will not be returning to this competition again.
On reflection I should have protested much more before the fight started, just as an adult from my son’s club did when he was due to fight a 17 year old in his category! Shocking stuff, he quite rightly refused and they placed him in another adult category. We also witnessed mixed gender fighting with the younger ages, which is not allowed under World Karate Federation rules and our son’s category on the day is also not allowed as those boys with head gear were 13 and my son is 15. This club who organised the competition have flouted the rules before when we went a year ago, where other students from our dojo were victims of cheating and preferential treatment of those from affiliated clubs.
Protesting did nothing on the day for my son, but the fans protest before the Burnley game is starting to have some traction and receiving a higher profile across media sites. The numbers of fans who gathered and then walked, singing and chanting from Stratford High Street to London Stadium behind a coffin with the words ‘SOLD OUR SOUL’ painted on the side provided a powerful image to focus our anger at how our club has been run by the owners since they took over in January 2010 when they acquired a 50% stake in the club.
I was concerned that at the planned sit in after the Newcastle Utd game there were so few fans who had decided to stay behind and voice their feelings about how the club is being run. But the march before the Burnley home game showed just how many fans are angry and how the protest is building with up to 10k people making their way peacefully along the route.
Organised by Hammers Utd, the ‘funeral proccession’ gathered lots of traction on social media and positive coverage and support from fans and fan groups alike. Fan Banter has an excellent article here with lots of examples of positive posts on social media.
The petition set up by Nick at Claret and Booze has reached 17,250 signatories and is growing, stating:
‘Enough is enough.
We are not customers.
We are not commodities.
We are West Ham.
This is more than football. This is about principle, identity, and saving a club that represents generations of history.’
Some of the fans I met at the demo were Dylan with the flag, Mark in the claret and blue blazer, Andy on the right and Cooper pointing to Andy, with two other fans happy to join in the photo.
The petition on Change.org has many fans comments, like this from Les in Colchester: “I have been supporting West Ham for 54 years. I have travelled everywhere with them but I always loved going to Upton Park, our fortress ground. What has annoyed me to this day was the lies and the cheat that we have endured ever since Brady and Sullivan took over. They sold our ground to go over to this souless bowl. We were told we was going to a world class team in a world class stadium. The stadium is held together by scaffolding and cable ties. Then they say every season there is no money to buy players and bringing in managers on a free. They try to get rid of concessions but it back fired only because the fans protest. They have no proper infrastructure in running the club. We have no identity, no ground what we can call home. They have milked us and they are stripping the clubs assets. Enough is enough!!”
I wasn’t sure how many people had joined the protest, but it was a much bigger crowd than before and stretched along the road back towards Pudding Mill Lane. The atmosphere was electric with chants and songs in-between speeches from Hammers Utd chair Paul Colborne, who said:
“Brady and Sullivan have wrecked the heart and soul of our club. We’ve showed the world that thousands do care. West Ham is for us, the supporters and the community – not for two individuals clinging to power after years of failure.”
Bill Gardner, who was introduced to chants of ‘Bill Gardner, he’s one of our own’, also spoke to fans saying ‘I promise you, before the start of the New Year, you will have news that will cheer everyone up’ Teasing us to wait for what this news may be – although the rumour mill has been working overtime and there is a suggestion Brady will be stepping down from her role at the club.
Buoyed by the protest and hoping I’d managed to get some decent shots I walked around the island and took a few photos of the stadium. Originally designed to be a home for athletics, I agree it is not an ideal home for football and not a place we can call home for our club, but it does offer some visual attraction from a photographers perspective.
The low light of the afternoon sun cast shadows across the concourse as I went to line up at security to then make my way into the stadium to meet my brother for the match.
With my nifty 50mm lens I was trying to capture the crowd mingling around outside the stadium, which seems to now be Brew Dog venue, then switched to my Canon EFS 18-135mm to get some different views as I wandered around towards my turnstile.
This image kind of highlights some of the issues we fans have with the club, the separation between our history, our experience as fans and what the clubs offers us. I’d be interesting in readers views on how we are treated as fans and what the club history means to you all.
A fan stands alone, reading the match day programme, which I stopped buying years ago before we moved to the current stadium.
I was struck by this view of fans preparing to enter the stadium for the match and the city skyscrapers in the distance, with another being built. The area has changed significantly since I moved back to London to study and it seems increasingly we live in an area that is gradually becoming a concrete nightmare. The Olympic Park is an oasis within which the stadium is situated.
After being uplifted by the protest before the match, I felt a sense of hope that we could get another home win to help lift the sour mood that seems to be overshadowing the club at the moment. Bowen, I was hoping, would score and add some much needed points onto my fantasy league team this week.
Waiting for the teams to stand in the centre circle I glance around the stands for an interesting shot and find this wonderful scene with a father and his young boy and remember the time I first brought my children to see a match at the Boleyn Ground. Those were the days.
The furore caused by a leaked email from an employee of the West Ham Foundation, the charitable arm of the club, stating that no poppies will be displayed on academy player shirts for the remembrance weekend. It highlights for us fans the way the club is run across all it’s operation, and this kind of mixed message caused quite a lot of upset and fear that there will be no marking of Remembrance Day by the first and the women’s team. The club, I fell, always do Remembrance Day very well and the minutes silence provided a moment to reflect on the horror of war and the impact it has on the lives of so many people around the world.
Much has been made of Areola’s recent performances, but there are times when we so easily concede possession and teams are able to cut through our midfield without even a player making a tackle, which places more pressure on our shot stopper.
It seemed inevitable that the visitors were to go 1-0, despite VAR checking for offside.
A shout out to Potts who put in another excellent performance, despite being substituted later in the game with an injury. We can all sense great things from Potts in the future. He has great desire to get involved in the game and is keen to be an important part of the midfield offering some well needed balance and complimenting Fernandez and Paqueta. Let’s hope he returns to the team after the international break. Soucek is proving to be an excellent super sub at the moment.
Wilson was able to restore parity just before half time when the excellent Crysencio Summerville’s effort was deflected into his path for a simple nod into the net. We really needed that going into the half time.
There was passion from the players, although admittedly not our best performance, but heads didn’t go down as we have seen before and noise and passion from the stands, a huge shift after suffering such a poor run of form since the start of the season. We sensed victory and that is what we got.
Soucek chests the ball into the net giving us the lead after visiting keeper Dubravka fumbles Paqueta’s ball into his path as he rushes towards the net. Something I’ve noticed is that players are pushing forwards in anticipation of the loose ball and it’s having an impact.
Fans are sensing victory, chanting and singing and challenging any decision or tackle and making their voices heard, urging the players to grab another goal and that’s what happened.
It was Soucek’s long range effort that again was pushed into the path of another West Ham player as Kyle Walker-Peters gets his foot to the ball just before teammate Bowen to seal a well deserved victory. The stadium was rocking and the atmosphere was electric with many more fans staying to the end than has been the norm this season.
Ex Hammer academy player Josh Cullen finds the net for a consolation goal after an awful fumble by Areola, but that couldn’t dampen the spirits as fans celebrated a much needed win, despite it not making a difference to our place in the table.
What a change to what we have been made to suffer this season at home and perhaps the gaffer has finally started to see the fruits of his labours with the team and we can start securing more results to move up the table.
I briefly reflect on the days events as I leave the stadium, capturing a fan checking for their name on one of the founders wall and wonder where we are going as a club. Will the fans protest make a difference? Will these protests put pressure on the board so that both Brady and Sullivan resign from their roles and they can hire competent, professional people who will work in the interests of the fans and the club?
I’ll leave the final word to Hammers United chairman Paul Colborne:
“With Brady and Sullivan at the helm our club is going to die. It is in serious decline and dying a slow death as we speak, with thousands of long term, time served fans walking away, another relegation fight beckoning, and another early cup exit. We cannot allow this to happen on our watch.”
What happens next is up to us fans and how far we are prepared to go to see a change in how the club is run.
Take care everyone
Dawud
From the Stands 