I am delighted to welcome you to our new website. It has a host of new features and functionality that we hope will make following West Ham easier wherever you are.
One of the most exciting elements is the introduction of a free TV service. This was highlighted as a key priority by our SAB focus group so we have moved to offer free West Ham TV to all fans. All you have to do is register to My West Ham. I hope you enjoy using it; hopefully to watch free highlights from some great victories between now and the end of the season!
One of the other key elements of the new site will be the inclusion of more opinion and analysis and, as part of that, David Gold and I will be writing to you more frequently in our ‘From the Boardroom’ column. For our first one, I thought it would be appropriate to tackle a topic that has been at the very front of the news agenda over the past few weeks.
I should make clear from the outset that I absolutely reject and condemn discrimination in whatever form it takes. Prior to Sunday’s game at Spurs, David Gold and I emailed every supporter who had bought a ticket to remind them of our stance, so we were naturally disappointed to see the reports of unacceptable behaviour from a small group of individuals earlier this week.
But while the unsavoury videos and reports of inappropriate chanting from a mindless few following the game have rightly been condemned, I think it is also important to highlight the good work that football and more specifically West Ham United do to help educate and eradicate such issues, which are not just confined to our sport but society as a whole.
I strongly believe that football can be a force for good as it offers an unrivalled opportunity to reach out and engage with a huge audience. I think many of the issues we see are as a result of a lack of awareness and understanding of different issues so wherever possible we try to use football to educate and inform.
When David and I arrived at West Ham United more than five years ago, one of our first priorities was to expand the Club’s work with organisations that promote inclusion and reject discrimination.
We are now proud advocates of Kick It Out, Show Racism the Red Card, Football v Homophobia and Holocaust Memorial Day, to name but a few leading campaigns, and we make it our business to promote tolerance and education wherever and however we can.
Our West Ham United Foundation does an excellent job in that regard too. Providing equal opportunities and educating people about discrimination is at the very heart of what it stands for, with very many disability and awareness charities working by their side.
Football does do a tremendous amount of work for good, which I think is often overlooked in light of the kind of incidents we have seen in Paris and north London. It is clear such occurrences are completely unacceptable, but we must not let the actions of small minority tarnish the name of our beautiful game and the hundreds of thousands of fans that support their team in exactly the right way every single weekend.
David Sullivan
The views in this article are that of the author and not necessarily those of West Ham United