West Ham United supporters have cancelled a planned protest march against the club’s owners.
West Ham supporters are deeply unhappy with the club’s lack of progress since their much-heralded move from Upton Park to the London Stadium.
A protest march against co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold and their vice-chairman Karren Brady was planned next weekend before the home game against Burnley.
It came as groups of supporters joined forces over broken promises regarding the stadium move and transfer spending.
The various groups formed the Real West Ham Fans Action Group and subsequently demanded meetings with the owners to talk about their issues.
Brady attended a number of meetings and some members also met with Sullivan.
And it appears the group’s leaders feel sufficiently reassured and have now called off the protest.
In a statement on the Real West Ham Fans Action Group’s Facebook page on Thursday night, the group stated the threat to march had served its purpose to spur the owners into action.
“RWHFAG was set up in November to galvanise the board into recognising that the REAL West Ham had died in the move from Upton Park to the Olympic Stadium, that the promises made to keep the spirit alive had not been met and that with no evidence of meeting those promises despite the efforts of various supporter groups over time something had to be done differently,” the statement said.
“The threat of the march has indeed brought Karren Brady to several meetings and David Sullivan to one and the agreement to work with the RWHFAG on finally delivering in a meaningful way on the groups aims.
“We hoped when we set out to get to this position – that we have achieved this much in such a short time is a testament to the power of each and every member of this group. The reason we called the march – to get the board to listen to us to acknowledge our legitimate concerns and to work with us have been achieved – on this basis the RWHFAG see no further reason to march, which some individuals found difficult to accept but is nonetheless the position.”
More than £20,000 was raised by Hammers fans towards the march and the group has announced that money will instead be donated to help a young West Ham fan’s battle with illness.
The news seems to have divided supporters further with many unhappy the march has been cancelled and sceptical as to whether the board will admit their mistakes, improve the stadium and start spending the money they promised to on leaving the club’s beloved Boleyn Ground home in 2016.
As reported by Sky Sports earlier this week Brady wrote an open letter to the group pledging to make “explore the possibility” of bringing seats closer to the pitch at the London Stadium and to change the badge in the future – something which surely would have happened anyway given the club is set to celebrate its 125th anniversary in 2020.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
