West Ham United will complete preparations for the 2022/23 campaign with a pre-season match at RC Lens.
The Hammers will make the trip to northern France to take on a Lens side which enjoyed a fine 2021/22 season, finishing seventh in Ligue 1 above the likes of champions Lille and West Ham’s UEFA Europa League quarter-final opponents Olympique Lyonnais.
David Moyes’ squad will travel to the 38,000-capacity Stade Bollaert-Delelis on Saturday 30 July, with kick-off at 6.15pm local time (5.15pm UK time). There, West Ham will take on a Lens team led by France international right-back Jonathan Clauss and central midfielders Seko Fofana and Cheick Doucouré, who play for Ivory Coast and Mali respectively.
Ticket details for our trip to tackle Franck Haise’s side will be announced in due course.
The fixture will mark the climax of the Irons’ pre-season schedule, with Moyes’ men also travelling to Swiss Super League side Servette (Friday 8 July), National League outfit Boreham Wood and EFL League One opponents Ipswich Town (both Tuesday 12 July), EFL Championship clubs Reading (Saturday 16 July) and Luton Town (Saturday 23 July) and Scottish Premiership side Rangers (Tuesday 19 July).
These matches will not only help manager Moyes ready his players for an exciting and challenging season ahead, in which his squad will be competing on four fronts again, but also give the Claret and Blue Army further opportunities to travel over land and sea, as they did with such passion on the Club’s historic run to the UEFA Europa League semi-finals last term.
Ticket information for all pre-season fixtures can be found here.
The Hammers will kick-off the 2022/23 Premier League campaign against reigning champions Manchester City in front of a record home attendance on Sunday 7 August at 4.30pm, when 62,500 fans will be in the stands following summer reconfiguration works carried out to increase the capacity at London Stadium.
West Ham will also compete in the UEFA Europa Conference League play-offs, with a home leg to be played in east London on either 18 or 25 August.
Brighton & Hove Albion (Saturday 20 August) and Tottenham Hotspur (Tuesday 30 August) will also visit London Stadium during the opening month of the season, which kicks-off earlier than normal due to the mid-season 2022 FIFA World Cup finals in Qatar.
European club football will take a six-week break between 13 November and 26 December.
West Ham’s only previous visit to RC Lens took place in May 1936, at the end of a post-season tour that had also seen Charlie Paynter’s squad travel to Switzerland.
With the local area famous for its mining industry, the Hammers’ players and staff visited a local colliery, but politely turned down an invitation to go down the pit. They then joined their opposite numbers for a visit to the First World War battlefields and cemeteries at Notre Dame de Lorette and Arras.
RC Lens were formed in 1906. They were crowned champions of France in 1997/98, have finished as runners-up in Ligue 1 on four other occasions, reached three French Cup finals and won the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2005 and 2007.