UEFA has rejected a special request for West Ham’s Europa Conference League clash with Silkeborg on Thursday night.
Danish side Silkeborg host West Ham in match two of the Conference League group stages having just ended a poor run of form that had seen them win just once in their last seven games.
West Ham have had a full week to prepare after all English football fixtures were postponed last weekend in the wake of the Queen’s death.
One thing West Ham do know is that their Europa Conference League clash against Silkeborg is going ahead after UEFA green-lighted fixtures involving English clubs – although Arsenal’s Europa League clash has been postponed due to a lack of police availability.
West Ham top Group B after beating FCSB 3-1 at the London Stadium in the first group stage match of the new campaign on Thursday night.
Meanwhile Silkeborg lost 1-0 to Belgian side Anderlecht.
Silkeborg won at the weekend, though, to move up to third place in the Danish Superliga.
Ahead of the game English clubs are said to have contacted European football’s governing body over this week’s games across their competitions.
And UEFA has rejected a special request for West Ham’s Europa Conference League clash with Silkeborg.
West Ham and their fellow British clubs have been told they CAN’T play God Save The King before their European matches this week.
The Daily Mail says UEFA turned down the requests but some plan to ignore the ruling and honour the Queen and Charles anyway.
“Multiple pleas have been made to UEFA in recent days to allow the God Save the King anthem to be played at stadiums, but the governing body is understood to have batted away requests,” MailPlus reports.
The Daily Mail claims the likes of West Ham and the other British clubs may decide to ignore the ruling, but warned they may face a potential fine by doing so.
West Ham are no strangers to fines from UEFA. They were hit with a fine over crowd disturbances during last season’s run to the Europa League semi-finals.
And both Hammers boss David Moyes and captain Declan Rice were fined and banned over their conduct and comments during the defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt.
With West Ham being away, playing the anthem may prove somewhat difficult without agreement of our hosts.
So it will be interesting to see if the Danes honour any request from West Ham, presumably on the understanding the Hammers would fit the bill for any fine meted out.
West Ham fans were universally praised for their spontaneous and stirring tribute to the Queen when they replaced a planned minute’s silence with rapturous applause and renditions of God Save the Queen before and during the game against FCSB.