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West Ham fans without tickets warned not to travel to stadium by Dutch police
West Ham United supporters without tickets for the Europa Conference League semi-final against AZ Alkmaar have been warned by Dutch police to stay away from the stadium, as reported by the Evening Standard.
Around 5,000 Hammers are expected to make the short trip over to the Netherlands to cheer on their heroes as they aim to seal a place in the Prague final, next month.
AZ’s stadium only holds around 19,500 with UEFA’s minimum requirement for opposition fan ticket allocations for European games sitting at the 5% mark.
Further details were provided in the report from the Evening Standard, ahead of the semi-final decider.
“The club has an away allocation of just 975 at the 19,500-capacity AZ Stadion, five times fewer than the number expected to make the trip, and Dutch police have warned fans without tickets not to travel to the ground,” it said.
“Local authorities are laying on buses to take West Ham fans from the city centre to the stadium and back to Alkmaar’s main train station post-match.”
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Supply and demand
Committed football supporters will travel to follow their team and West Ham are no different to that.
An allocation of just under 1000 was never going to be enough to meet the demand for this fixture but the majority of fans will make the most of the trip, in the right way.
Plenty will stay in Amsterdam, with a large number heading through to Alkmaar where the game will take place.
Just like the players, they will be looking to go one better than last season when their Euro run came to an end at the last-four stage.
The Hammers should be confident and bullish about their prospects of getting past AZ to secure a place in the final, next month in Prague.
If that happens, the 5,000 figure of travelling fans heading to the Netherlands, should at least treble for the decider.
European success is inching closer for West Ham United.