Football
FA to probe Upton Park violence
West Ham's Jack Collison encourages fans to leave the field after a pitch invasion following their equalizing goal against Millwall during their English League Cup soccer match at Upton Park in London August 25, 2009. REUTERS
Posted Wednesday, August 26 2009 at 14:22
The Football Association is to investigate the violence that marred the Carling Cup clash between West Ham and Millwall at Upton Park on Tuesday.
One man was stabbed as fans clashed outside the ground, while there were also three pitch invasions.
"We absolutely condemn all of the disorder that has occurred at Upton Park," said an FA spokesperson.
"We will be working with all parties, the police and clubs, to establish the facts surrounding these events."
The FA also confirmed that it expected any fan identified as being involved in the violence to be banned for life and stated: "They have no place in our game."
FA director of communications Adrian Bevington told BBC Radio 5 live it was too early to say if the clubs would face sanctions.
He said: "We have to understand exactly what measures were put in place last night.
"I'm not going to condemn West Ham or Millwall football clubs for any of their actions - certainly not at this stage, because we don't know exactly what's been put in place.
"And we know there have been huge efforts on the parts of all our clubs to try to eradicate the problems and we've had a history of success on that.
Police worked to contain violence before, during and after the match
"However, we have to make sure that the individuals concerned face such tough actions that they can't go to football again.
"We all want a big atmosphere at matches - that's part of football, part of the passion.
"However, we also want to make sure it's a safe environment to watch games and we've just spent the best part of 20 years working towards that."
West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola condemned those responsible for the trouble and said they were not fans of football.
"I've been involved in difficult games and things happened. Here, I've played seven years and I've never seen it like this," added Zola.
"It's certainly not good for football. I was completely shocked. Totally. I knew it was a game that meant a lot for the two sets of supporters but I didn't imagine it like this.
RSS