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It had been a long time coming, but it is hard not to see the brave new world West Ham United have stepped tentatively into as a triumph for the fans.

After so many months and years of acrimony, pitch invasions, marches, resentment and anger, the announcement by the club of the formation of a new Independent Supporter Committee should not be trivialised. It is a breakthrough moment that many folk have fought so long for.




It’s so easy to be cynical, to maybe see motives, but what has been announced by the club should give all loyal fans hope for a more harmonious future.

The fact that is has been guided by the expertise of the Football Supporters Association and has been a year in the making - and that the club approached the FSA for help and guidance - gives me great cause for optimism. There was a time when the club wouldn’t let the FSA anywhere near them.

But they are good people, hugely experienced in football matters. Used by the Government, who frankly know little or care less about football, as a sounding board.

Way back in the day when England fans were the scapegoats across Europe, I had regular contact with Kevin Miles, now its chief executive and a genuinely good guy, as the FSA was formed and grew. That they are involved and influencing what is now happening at West Ham gives me great cause for confidence.

There are some really good people involved. Looking down the list of FSA officials I see Amanda Jacks, a great friend of our club, and Andy Walsh who played a major part in the founding of the Manchester United ISA way back in the day. |As I said, good people who will not sell us short.

Way back in the days when the West Ham Independent Supporters Association was banging the drum, the club didn’t want to know about fan representation or the FSA. We have come a long way since then.

Over the past three years or so I have watched from the sidelines as this sometimes open warfare has taken its course. Good journalistic principles suggests that you don’t take sides, you watch and report.

During that time I have made many friends, acquaintances - some of whom I have never even met - from our fan base as the days of acrimony have unfolded. They have views and experience that I respect, their hearts are always in the right place. Some have dropped by the wayside, some have taken a backseat, but this day belongs to all of them.

We are not talking about folk who are experts in the public arena, as we have seen even this week, but we have seen ordinary fans with no professional experience of such matters throw themselves into the fray because they care.

They want something better for our fans than the previous derided and orchestrated fans groups the club tried to impose on the fan base.

This time a year ago some 10,000 fans marched to show their displeasure. Hammers United had been formed and now has 17,000 members. The club was severely embarrassed. The last 12 months of this horrific pandemic has muted those protests, some of whom have aims far more severe than just being allowed to sit around a table to discuss West Ham’s future.




But the situation hasn’t changed. The #GSBOUT campaign and the desire for greater representation on a proper fans’ board are two different things. They get severely mangled together at times, but they need to be handled differently.

#GSBOUT will not go away. But Hammers United will be on the inside now, with a part to play. So too will be the smaller but equally determined WHUISA. Getting these two groups to work together has been key to everything that has happened over the past year.

That too has come a long way from the acrimony between the groups, the sometimes painful to see infighting inside WHUISA. Watching the internal wrangling of that group at an AGM a year or so back, with the infiltration of outside agitators, was one of the most depressing things I have witnessed.

These were all West Ham fans. Surely with the same objectives. You could witness egos clanging together from one end of Hackney Wick to the other.

Even this week we have seen stunts that depress. Carlton Cole wheeled out on TalkSport to back the board and use the word "we". Carlton is a legend, loved by the fans and that won’t change. My old mum had a way with words, she would have described Carlton as a big soft lump. Let's leave that there.

Then we have had TalkSport agreeing to and then refusing to have Paul 'Bubbles' Colborne on the air. I wonder why? Instead we got Andy Byrne basically hung out to dry by the sad double act of Jim White and perma-tanned Simon Jordan, best known from memory for taking Crystal Palace to financial collapse and then, it is alleged, becoming involved with Noel Gallagher’s ex-wife.

Andy was there willingly, but he was no match for TalkSport’s shock jocks. Enough said there. Then, 24 hours later, we have the announcement of this bright, shinny new supporters committee. Sometimes you wonder!

All that is best forgotten now. We have come a long way from those days of inter-group rivalry. From those days this announcement has evolved. It’s fair to say that maybe four of the groups involved, the remnants of the old Official Supporters’ Board, have some financial involvement with the club. It is easy to see an issue there.

But this is a start. The beginning of a new future, light at the end of a tunnel. We will all wait to see how it evolves, but the club must be praised for allowing it to happen. Let's not waste this first brick in the wall.

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