If you look at the West Ham website it will tell you that we will play Spurs away on New Year’s Eve at 2.15pm, except it came pretty clear after the announcement late on Friday 3rd November that the move wasn’t as nailed down as it could have been.
Spurs issued a warning to their saying don’t book travel or accommodation as the game date isn’t confirmed.
http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/first-team/fixtures/fixture-changes-031117/
That was two weeks ago and nothing has changed.
They cancelled ticket sales last week and as of this morning it still remains unresolved.
Spurs like us are tenants at their stadium and their situation is exacerbated by being there for being there for just a year.
They need to get various bodies involved, Wembley National Stadium Limited need to find enough stewards to safely manage 90,000 people as well as catering, and other staff, the Met have to be happy they have enough bodies to police the game and have enough fresh for NYE in central London, London Underground have to find enough drivers and Brent’s Safety Advisory Group have to give their blessing.
That’s before you start thinking about how the pubs feel about have such a fixture on their busiest day of the year.
After the announcement both West Ham made noises to WHUISA that the game should go ahead on the 31st and Spurs did the same to our equivalent fans group, Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust (THST), but that was two weeks ago and we still haven’t had confirmation.
We keep pressing for an answer.
You have to wonder, the longer it takes, the less faith you have that they can pull it off.
The clubs aren’t to blame, this was a Sky decision signed off by the Premier League but you do wonder how this game was allowed to be announced without everything being nailed down.
It also means our home game against West Brom has been moved to an evening kick off on the 2nd which means for the second year running, West Ham won’t have a home game on either Boxing Day or New Year’s Day.
The kids are also back at school so many will miss out on their first game of the year.
The latest round of TV fixtures has proved a nightmare. Sky and BT paid over £5bn pounds to show live Premier League football as part of the current three year broadcast deal and that gives them considerable power to schedule games when is best for them.
WHUISA in conjunction with other supporters’ organisations through the Football Supporters Federation do our best to mitigate the worst of these situations through dialogue with the Premier League, or in the case of the recent Christmas Eve situation through direct campaigning.
All the FSF fans groups work together to try and find the best solution for match going fans but we have to recognise that some games are going to be played at time when isn’t ideal.
The fixture scheduler’s job is hard and has been made harder by the Champions League claiming extra midweek slots and the ever present Europa League and we have to recognise we won’t always be delighted with the slots chosen for our games.
But surely it not too much to ask that six weeks before a game, we should know for definite when a match is kicking off, especially on a date when people are trying to make other plans with family and friends.
By George Mann – WHUISA
@SGFmann
Website: http://www.whuisa.org/join-whuisa/
Twitter :@WHUISA2017 https://www.facebook.com/groups/WHUISA/