Victims of West Ham and Millwall riot to take legal action
A number of football fanatics may soon be filing compensation claimsafter suffering from various injuries when a riot broke out at Upton Park between West Ham and Millwall supporters, before, during and after the game.
One man was stabbed while other supporters suffered from personal injuries in the planned attack in East London.
A man was stabbed before the game while fans invaded the pitch during it on a number of occasions. At one stage, the game had to be forted.
Riots filled the streets and outside the stadium after the game while 200 riot police and 20 officers on horseback struggled to fight the bottles and bricks thrown at them.
One of the men, a 43-year-old Millwall supporter, was stabbed at the Carling Cup match when he arrived at the wrong gate and was separated from his two teenage sons as West Ham fans chased them.
A police official said: "The victim was subjected to a brutal and sustained attack as he and his family tried to flee."
According to a spokesperson from the police, the man was one of the 10 family members who had gone to watch the match.
Yet during their attempt to reach the right area of the ground, a gang of West Ham supporters followed them along Tudor Road and attacked the family by punching and kicking them.
The spokesman, said: "The victim was further separated from his sons and continued to be attacked by the group, receiving a single stab wound to the chest."
His sons later found the man collapsed near a bus garage.
Detective Inspector, Lee Barnard, from the Newham violent crime unit, said: "This incident was not a pre-arranged act of violence between two sets of rival supporters; this was an innocent family man who was subjected to a senseless attack by people intent on causing violence.
"If not for the swift intervention of paramedics, the man would have lost his life."
Fourteen men were arrested, and nine men were charged over a number of incidents that occurred during the game. Yet it is unknown whether the victims will be filing a criminal injury compensation claim against the thugs.
Hooligans to be given a life ban, says FA
The director of communications of the Football Association, Adrian Bevington, described the event as a "disgrace."
He said: "It was a disgrace and it's not accepted."
Bevington confirmed that the FA will be conducting an in-depth review into the disgraceful scenes that occurred on Tuesday night.
He highlighted that violent behaviour will not be tolerated and that those trouble making individuals will be banned from football for life.
However, he suggested that clubs could take adequate safety measures to quash any potential disturbances.
He told Sky Sports News: "We need to understand exactly what arrangements were put in place. We don't know the full details.
"It would be wrong of me to say clubs face action because if the clubs have taken every measure possible, then why would they face action?
"Most importantly we want individuals, and there are lots of them, to be identified, arrested and put through the judicial system.
"As a minimum we want sentences to be imposed on them that lead to them being banned from football for life."
Redknapp: "Hammers and Lions" should never play together
Former West Ham manager Redknapp said: "I don't like saying this but I am afraid there is only one answer if the Hammers and Lions are ever drawn to face each other again - put the balls back in the hat and draw them out again.
"When the two names were drawn together it was just asking for trouble and that is exactly what we got because of the history between them.
"And if they ever meet in the league then the game should be played behind closed doors because the human cost of these kind of disturbances is just too high to bear any longer."
Updated on 8/29/2009