West Ham Fan TV’s Dan Lawless has slammed images coming out of the club showing a barrier between home and away fans at the London Stadium.
With the new Premier League season upon us, there are plenty of reasons to be excited at the moment for football supporters. However, West Ham fans would have been disappointed by their team’s opening display as they fell to a 2-0 defeat at the weekend.
To make things worse, images shared online from the ground show a barrier has been installed, allegedly to prevent home and away fans from seeing each other.
A Europa League tie at the London Stadium was marred by crowd issues last season, with Rapid Vienna fans charging towards the home end with missiles thrown between both sets of supporters on the night.
In reaction to this news, West Ham Fan TV presenter Lawless took to Twitter to criticise the update, writing: “We need to be finding ways to improve the atmosphere, not make it worse.
“Honestly, football won’t be worth going to in the near future.”
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TIF Thoughts on West Ham and the London Stadium…
As the London Stadium was built for athletics, with a track running around the edge of the football pitch, it has often been criticised for lacking the intimacy Upton Park had, thus creating a poorer atmosphere (via Daily Star).
With that in mind, it’s easy to see why Lawless has been concerned by these latest developments that could prevent a more raucous crowd noise as the two fanbases interact with one another on gameday.
Of course, with the barrier installed, the argument will be that this should lead to less aggression and potential violence between rival supporters, but it’s a shame that this preventative measure has been taken nonetheless.