West Ham United winger Jarrod Bowen has said the events at the AFAS Stadion in the Hammers’ Europa Conference League semi-final second-leg win over AZ Alkmaar were a disgrace.
Minutes after Pablo Fornals’ late goal secured a 1-0 win on the night and a place in Wednesday’s final in Prague against Fiorentina, a group of Alkmaar supporters broke down a fence to attack a hospitality area of the ground where many of the families and friends of the Hammers’ players were situated.
Among those was Bowen’s 70-year-old granddad and the sight of the family section being invaded was one that Bowen, and other members of the Hammers ’ squad simply could not ignore.
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Speaking out on what had happened, Bowen said that while he and his teammates have to be professional and act as role models, seeing family members being attacked with weapons that included bike chains made the situation simply too difficult to ignore.
“My grandad is 70 years old and he was in the middle of the Alkmaar fans,” Bowen told The Telegraph. “It was a disgrace. Us lads were angry. We are role models and we have to keep a calm head, but when it is your family there getting attacked, people have to see it in a different light. That is your family, your blood.
“When you see people with bike chains and hitting them with it, it was not nice. I was looking for my family and then you hope security does the best they can. I don’t think I have ever seen anything like that in football, that number of fans going over there and wanting to cause violence.
“Luckily, in the end, I didn’t hear that anyone was seriously injured and that is the main thing. Not just our families, but other West Ham fans there too. They don’t want to go to a game and get punched by 50 people. Luckily in the end everyone came out unscathed and we still enjoyed the moment.”
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