[Football] West Ham situation. Is it the same?

[Weststander]

I think most 'Appy 'Ammers were quite happy to move into their shiny new stadium at very little cost to their club or themselves. They may have been sold a pup by their board but loads were very vocal about what a great deal it was at taxpayers expense and how they were about to become a regular top 6 club. Didn't go to the promised plan so now they're revolting.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

That is true.

The protests started when the lack of atmosphere, very long sight-lines and most importantly a raft home losses soon became the reality.

 

[Brovion]

Their fans need to “give their heads a wobble” they are NOT a club in crisis.

Exactly. They're having a poor season, that's all, and those fans who were stupid enough to believe that a move to a bigger ground would result in them immediately becoming a top-four side are angry that it hasn't happened.

And yes the Olympic Stadium isn't an ideal football ground, but that was the trade-off for getting a massive ground for peanuts. Withdean wasn't an ideal ground either, but we had some great times there. (Remember Swindon?). If their signings had gelled and they were top-half none of these protests would have happened.

 

[Tokyohands]

Their situation is nowhere near the same as ours was and I think a stint in the Championship would give their portion of idiotic fans, who fight among themselves, a bit of a reality check. Sayonara!

 

[1234andcounting]

At what point should fans begin to organise themselves because they sense the underlying structure of the club is beginning to disintegrate? As we know, it takes a huge amount of effort to dislodge owners who either can't or won't run a club as both a (reasonably) successful business venture and a coherent sporting endeavour. Did Leyton Orient fans leave it to late? How about Coventry City? Blackpool? We have, in a sense, been fortunate, with an incredible reversal of fortune to get to where we are now. But compare us with Hull City, who have come back and look like imploding again in a much shorter time-frame.

At the very least, the watch words for supporters who love their club are "eternal vigilance".

 

[Gazwag]

Why didn't the pitch invasions start in the first half when they were playing well rather than wait until they went one down.

 

[Gazwag]

Now this is a pitch invasion

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/43369490

PAOK Salonika president invades pitch with gun

The Greek top-flight match between PAOK Salonika and AEK Athens on Sunday was abandoned after PAOK's president invaded the pitch with a gun.

Ivan Savvides tried to confront the referee with a gun in a hip holster after his side had an 89th-minute goal ruled offside with the score 0-0.

AEK's players left the pitch concerned for their safety and did not return.




The match was officially abandoned two hours later and it was reported the referee had reversed his decision.

Greece's deputy culture and sports minister Georgios Vassiliadis said the situation called for "bold decisions".

Savvides, one of Greece's richest men, was born in Georgia of Greek heritage and is a former member of the Russian parliament.

He asked his team to leave the pitch following the offside decision then marched towards the referee before being pulled back by bodyguards.

PAOK are third in the Greek top flight and could have moved within two points of leaders AEK with a win.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Bad situation really.

The owners have seen the opportunity to brand them as London FC - the "London" on the badge gives this away - and clearly also see this as essential to a high value sale to an overseas buyer. Happy days for the owners. Not so happy for the fans with their downgraded match experience.

 

[jasetheace]

I cant really make a judgement.

It would be helpful if the West Ham fans provided a list of requirements. However, things can only appear on the list if they have a solution and a plan for making it happen. It cannot just be a list of moans.

 

[rippleman]

Once Enrest finally tracks down the FA Cup Final money, this could be his next project.

 

[A1X]

I really find it hard to sympathise with fans of clubs who arrogantly assume that them being good once means they should still be so. See also: Leeds, Newcastle, Massive, to an extent Arsenal & Liverpool at a different tier.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I can’t work out what happened with the sale of the Boleyn either, and have spent ages trying to get to the bottom of things. Perhaps those involved want it to be as foggy as possible?

The 2016/17 WHUFC accounts show profit from sale of Boleyn Ground as £8,664,000, which is about the same price as it cost to buy Havard Nordtveit and Sofiana Feghouli.

 

[BHAFC_Pandapops]

The 2016/17 WHUFC accounts show profit from sale of Boleyn Ground as £8,664,000, which is about the same price as it cost to buy Havard Nordtveit and Sofiana Feghouli.

That is actually scandalous that you can buy one player for more than a whole stadium.

 

[Acker79]

I cant really make a judgement.

It would be helpful if the West Ham fans provided a list of requirements. However, things can only appear on the list if they have a solution and a plan for making it happen. It cannot just be a list of moans.

This is where I'm struggling, too.

We keep hearing about broken promises, yet when people talk about what they were promised they talk about challenging the top 6, and running debt-free. I've seen articles from fans side of things, again repeating this idea of broken promises, one of the articles seemed to acknowledge that you can't guarantee success in football, and the West Ham fans know this. If they know this, why take the promise of challenging for the top six not only serious, but so serious, it should apparently be a reality after only a year? If they want the club to be run debt-free, surely that means using your money to pay off debts* as well as spend on players. (Even though as El Pres has noted their player spending has increased).

I understand that there is the issue of the owners charging interest on their loans to the club, but that isn't illegal, or especially nefarious. It would be great if all owners were like Tony Bloom, offering interest free loans and alternative payments (my understanding is some of Blooms initial loans were able to be paid off in the form of shares in the club?), but these days not all owners, particularly at the top end, are local businessmen investing in the club they supported as a kid. They are billionaires or international businessmen who are looking to profit from owning a club in one way or another. To do that, they need the club to stay in the premier league, so I don't see the owners of west ham anywhere near the likes of Archer/Stanley/Belotti in terms of being "bad owners"

I also understand that leaving the ground you've had for over 100 years is a major move, and can be upsetting. But people aren't complaining about the move itself. Just the benefits (i.e. on-pitch success) haven't materialised... after one and a bit seasons.

Even the list of demands following the meeting that called of the march seemed so... trivial (perhaps excepting the one about the badge) and none of them seem related to the ground move or even their performances on the pitch

1: [club] Must take up full away ticket allocation
2: Memorial [garden] to be maintained regularly
3: The Hammer and Castle badge to be recognised with immediate effect on match programme and in future in the stadium
4: The owners to be more professional on social media ie remove the Sullivan kids from speaking on the clubs behalf
5: The 15 minute interval must be addressed its impossible to get to the toilets get a drink and be back for the restart a for the second half

It really is hard to feel sympathy for the fans when there's no clear reasonable explanation for their upset.

On the other hand, though, it is really easy to dislike the Gold/Sullivan/Brady.

 

[Acker79]

So, this upset with the club that has absolutely nothing to do with losing games... what protests happened at this weekend's game they won comfortably?

 

[Hampster Gull]

Didn’t see to much angst or protests when they were winning yesterday

 

[pauli cee]

This is where I'm struggling, too.

We keep hearing about broken promises, yet when people talk about what they were promised they talk about challenging the top 6, and running debt-free. I've seen articles from fans side of things, again repeating this idea of broken promises, one of the articles seemed to acknowledge that you can't guarantee success in football, and the West Ham fans know this. If they know this, why take the promise of challenging for the top six not only serious, but so serious, it should apparently be a reality after only a year? If they want the club to be run debt-free, surely that means using your money to pay off debts* as well as spend on players. (Even though as El Pres has noted their player spending has increased).

I understand that there is the issue of the owners charging interest on their loans to the club, but that isn't illegal, or especially nefarious. It would be great if all owners were like Tony Bloom, offering interest free loans and alternative payments (my understanding is some of Blooms initial loans were able to be paid off in the form of shares in the club?), but these days not all owners, particularly at the top end, are local businessmen investing in the club they supported as a kid. They are billionaires or international businessmen who are looking to profit from owning a club in one way or another. To do that, they need the club to stay in the premier league, so I don't see the owners of west ham anywhere near the likes of Archer/Stanley/Belotti in terms of being "bad owners"

I also understand that leaving the ground you've had for over 100 years is a major move, and can be upsetting. But people aren't complaining about the move itself. Just the benefits (i.e. on-pitch success) haven't materialised... after one and a bit seasons.

Even the list of demands following the meeting that called of the march seemed so... trivial (perhaps excepting the one about the badge) and none of them seem related to the ground move or even their performances on the pitch

1: [club] Must take up full away ticket allocation
2: Memorial [garden] to be maintained regularly
3: The Hammer and Castle badge to be recognised with immediate effect on match programme and in future in the stadium
4: The owners to be more professional on social media ie remove the Sullivan kids from speaking on the clubs behalf
5: The 15 minute interval must be addressed its impossible to get to the toilets get a drink and be back for the restart a for the second half

It really is hard to feel sympathy for the fans when there's no clear reasonable explanation for their upset.

On the other hand, though, it is really easy to dislike the Gold/Sullivan/Brady.

Hahahaha, Is that seriously a list of their top 5 gripes with the club??

Not being told when the 2nd half is going to kick off, blimey, torrid times at The Tax Payers Stadium.......

 

[Gwylan]

5: The 15 minute interval must be addressed its impossible to get to the toilets get a drink and be back for the restart a for the second half

Load of JCLs then. Anyone who's a serious football supporter knows that the half-time interval is 15 minutes long (Law 7: Players are entitled to an interval at half-time, not exceeding 15 minutes). The fact that they didn't know that suggests that the people making the protests are not long-standing football fans but probably hangers-on who could get/afford tickets for the Emirates.

 

[Saunders]

The 2016/17 WHUFC accounts show profit from sale of Boleyn Ground as £8,664,000, which is about the same price as it cost to buy Havard Nordtveit and Sofiana Feghouli.

That just smacks of how much the Goldstone was priced at as a sale price ignoring the real value of the land that will be realised after that wont be put into the club.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Load of JCLs then. Anyone who's a serious football supporter knows that the half-time interval is 15 minutes long (Law 7: Players are entitled to an interval at half-time, not exceeding 15 minutes). The fact that they didn't know that suggests that the people making the protests are not long-standing football fans but probably hangers-on who could get/afford tickets for the Emirates.

I read that more as they want the club to find a way to reduce the queuing times at half time, so that their fans can do those things during the 15 min break rather than (as you have seemingly read it as) calling for the break to be extended

Exactly like we had with our fans complaining about the queues at half time when we first moved in to the Amex and how long it takes to get served

 

[A Partridge]

this could look like some sort of dirty protest