Hate the directors, support the team: The WHUST mandate for West Ham protests

The terrible twosome at the top of the club – Brady and Sullivan (BS) – have always thought West Ham fans were horrible. But now the pair have provoked a putsch – a proper fan rebellion against their management style.

The West Ham United Supporters’ Trust (WHUST) board agreed with the other fan groups on the club’s Fan Advisory Board to pass a vote of no confidence in the top brass. Fellow FAB members Hammers United, along with another smaller fan group called Crossed Hammers, called protests.

The Boycott Dilemma: A Divided Vote

WHUST asked its members what they thought. Members were explicit that we should join a protest before the Crystal Palace match (97% in favour). But the next major planned protest—a boycott of the Brentford game—saw a much less clear mandate.

While more than 54% of those members who voted urged us to boycott, that was not half our total membership. We had said in our call to vote “the board would like to have a clear mandate from a majority of members” and we did not have a majority of members backing the boycott.

The main issue of those who expressed concern was that the protest must be clearly against the board and not the team. The most economical with words put it simply as: “Hate the directors but support the team”.

Another key concern was that a boycott primarily punishes the fans, many of whom have season tickets or have paid for travel/accommodation and would waste their cash with the club no worse off.

The Attendance Illusion and Measuring Success

Another worry is the difficulty of claiming the empty seats at the Brentford game are the result of a protest. The club publishes attendance based on ticket sales – so all season tickets are counted even if nobody goes. Newham Council has the numbers through the turnstiles.

For the Brentford home game in 2024, the club claimed there were more than 21,500 people at the match who physically weren’t there. The club attendance figure was 62,450. Newham said only 40,880 actually came in to watch. If there are the same numbers this year, how will the success of the protest be measured?

The Coming Actions: Marches and Sit-Ins

WHUST has continued to publicise the more broadly supported protests and board members are backing these where they can, as well as suggesting new ideas for different kinds of protests.

• Away Games: For all away games (excluding Everton), there will be black balloons and “No More BS” flags.
• Newcastle Home Match (2nd November): A planned sit-in protest after the match finishes.
• Burnley Home Match (8th November): A planned march before the match. This will be the big one.

It’s not just angry fan groups… The mainstream media is now widely reporting that West Ham is a club in crisis with interfering mismanagement. As The Guardian said: “a fanbase invested for life and a board that can barely see beyond the weekend”. It’s time for all fans to show their revolt.