There looks set to be plenty of German beef for West Ham in the big Europa League semi-final after the Eintracht Frankfurt complaint to FIFA.
West Ham face Frankfurt in the first leg of their huge Europa League semi-final at the London Stadium next Thursday night.
The Hammers will then make the trip to Germany for the second leg a week later.
And there is already plenty of needle between the two clubs.
The Bundesliga outfit have been given a 3,000 allocation for the first leg at West Ham’s Stratford ground.
There have been rumours that Frankfurt fans are attempting to purchase tickets in the home end as they did when taking over half of the Camp Nou for the quarter-final victory over Barcelona.
West Ham have responded by sharing their zero tolerance policy regarding any Frankfurt fans who attempt to buy tickets in the home end.
The German club’s sporting director Markus Krösche spoke berated West Ham for their hardline stance in an interview with Hessenchau.
“The English want to be tough there,” Krösche told Hessenchau.
“I hope that there are still more in the city. This feeling does something to us.”
Relations between West Ham and Eintracht Frankfurt promise to be frosty in the boardroom given recent past history between the two clubs too.
There will undoubtedly be German beef for West Ham in the big Europa League semi-final after Eintracht Frankfurt’s complaint to FIFA about the Hammers.
West Ham rather infamously paid a club record £45 million to the German side for flop striker Sebastien Haller in the summer of 2019.
Haller was sold for a £25m loss to Ajax just 18 months later as David Moyes gave up on the Ivorian and looked to raise transfer funds for his own signings.
It came after West Ham had found themselves in potential hot water with FIFA having been reported to world football’s governing body by Frankfurt over the Haller transfer.
As reported by the likes of Sky Sports at the time, the German club lodged a complaint with FIFA that they had not received a sum of £5.4m from the Hammers as part of the deal for the French striker.
In a statement, FIFA said: “We can confirm that we have received a claim from the German club Eintracht Frankfurt against English club West Ham United. The matter is still being investigated and consequently we cannot provide any further comments.”
Sky Sports reported that sources at West Ham were insisting the delay came about after an issue between the two clubs and the payment was in the process of being dealt with.
But it nevertheless muddied West Ham’s name on the continent somewhat.
Throw in the latest friction over ticketing and the fact Frankfurt’s ultras tried to attack West Ham fans when both were in Seville for games against Real Betis and Sevilla respectively during the last 16 and tensions are clearly fraught in the boardroom and off the pitch.
With German beef and West Ham this one promises to be very tasty indeed.