WEST HAM midfielder Declan Rice hit out at Uefa in a now-deleted tweet after the club’s fans were banned from attending their away clash against Rapid Vienna.
The Hammers were also slapped with a £29,000 fine by Europe’s governing body due to ‘crowd disturbances’ in their Europa League trip to Genk earlier this month.
Uefa have banned the East London outfit from selling tickets for their clash in Austria on November 25.
Commenting on Uefa’s decision, Rice fumed that the punishment is harsh and unfair as he questioned why Vienna fans went unpunished for their actions at the London stadium.
The visiting supporters stormed the home end after Rice broke the deadlock, resulting in both sets of fans throwing missiles and bottles or urine at each other.
Though Vienna were slapped with a ban by Uefa, with their fans unable to attend the clash against Croatian outfit Dinamo Zagreb on November 4.
In a now-deleted tweet, Rice, 22, posted: “Laughable this is.
“Gutted for our fans that now won’t be able to make the trip!
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“Did Rapid Vienna get fined or a ban of tickets for there (sic) ‘crowd disturbances’ at our stadium? Nope.”
After three minutes, his tweet was swiftly removed, but not before Hammers fans took to social media to praise his reaction.
One said: “Well done Declan Rice for speaking out and standing up for the fans.”
Another user remarked: “Shame footballers have to delete tweets that’s actually on there (sic) mind. Especially when it’s the truth! Fair play lad but keep it up!”
A third added: “We see you Deccers. Lasted 3 mins and club told him to delete it. Love you Declan Rice.”
Meanwhile one stated: “Declan Rice, I salute you.”
This fan simply messaged: “My captain.”
West Ham provided a statement on the Uefa ban, which read: “West Ham United can confirm that we have received an email late this afternoon informing us that we are subject to sanctions from UEFA in relation to our Europa League Group H fixture against KRC Genk on Thursday 4 November.
“The Club has been fined 34,500 Euros and also informed that our supporters are unable to travel for our next Europa League away fixture.
“The Club are urgently seeking clarification from UEFA, particularly given the extremely short notice of the sanction, which will impact our supporters who have already bought tickets and made arrangements to travel to Austria our match at Rapid Vienna in just over a week.
“We are surprised to receive these sanctions and disappointed for the fans who have behaved impeccably and supported the team throughout and will now be unable to travel to the next away Europa League fixture.
“The Club has requested the full written reasons from UEFA regarding these sanctions and have asked them to expedite our request given that further delay could impact supporters once again.
“The Club fully appreciates that supporters will have booked return travel and accommodation in Austria and are stressing this in our dialogue with UEFA. We will update supporters as soon as we are able to with further information.
“Finally, we would like to assure those supporters who have already purchased one of the 1,700 tickets that sold out our allocation for this game that they will be automatically refunded by the Club should UEFA rule the sanctions stand and that they relate to next week’s match in Austria.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
