A significant fan group for a Premier League club has demanded a match boycott in protest against their ownership.
Hammers United, a West Ham supporters’ group which has around 20,000 members, is calling for fans to stay away from their home clash against Brentford on October 20.
They claim the club will ‘die’ if majority owner David Sullivan and vice-chair Karren Brady remain at the club.
The group, who are affiliated with the Football Supporters Association (FSA), also want fans to protest at their game against Crystal Palace at the London Stadium on September 20.
Sullivan and Brady have been in post at West Ham since 2010, in which time they have left their historic Boleyn Ground and moved to the London Stadium, won the Europa Conference League, and spent the last 14 seasons in the Premier League.
‘With Brady and Sullivan at the helm our club is going to die,’ said Hammers United chairman Paul Colborne.
A West Ham fan group has demanded a boycott and a protest against the club’s ownership
Hammers United want David Sullivan (left) and Karen Brady (right) to leave the club
They are vexed over the move to the London Stadium in 2016 away from the Boleyn Ground
‘It is in serious decline and dying a slow death as we speak, with thousands of long term, time served fans walking away, another relegation fight beckoning, and another early cup exit. We cannot allow this to happen on our watch.
‘They sold off the Boleyn Ground and moved us to an athletics stadium, voted by many as the worst football ground in the country, which we don’t even own. We rent it!
‘We are all for progress but not at the expense of our identity. We all want a stadium we can be proud to call our home. We were promised a ‘World Class Stadium for a World Class Team’ when we left our beloved Boleyn Ground and 10 years later we have neither; something which is now finally being picked up by many commentators and pundits.’
Earlier this year, almost 14,000 supporters signed a petition asking Sullivan to ‘sell his shares and leave’ and wanting Brady to be ‘removed’.
The Hammers faithful have held action before. Back in 2020, Hammers United led a protest against David Sullivan and David Gold, who died in 2023, branding their reign ‘ten years of failure’.
While the London Stadium move has not heralded in a golden era of dominance, West Ham have been competitive and enjoyed European advantures under Slaven Bilic and David Moyes.
They finished in the top half in three of Moyes’ four full seasons in charge between 2020 and 2024, winning the Europa Conference League in 2023 and going deep in the Europa League either side of that year.
However, a shaky start to the season, which sees them lie 16th going into the first international break, has seen many onlookers suggest they could be in for a relegation scrap.
