As a Club we are dedicated to listening, educating, influencing and raising awareness. Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) sits firmly on the Board’s agenda.

We will continue to push forward with our robust and effective community work to promote equality and are recognised as one of the Premier League Clubs leading the charge in this area. Our approach is an inclusive one and we focus on integration and cohesion and, as a result, in December 2020 the Club were awarded with the Advanced level of the Premier League’s Equality Standard (PLES) – the highest level which can be achieved, recognising our ongoing commitment to EDI. The Club was awarded the Advanced level, now called the Premier League Equality and Diversity Standard (PLEDIS) for the second time in October 2023.

The Club engages in a number of EDI initiatives and is accredited as a London Living Wage employer, Disability Confident Leader and part of the Valuable 500. We continue to be in regular contact, and have strong relationships with, external campaign organisations such as Stonewall, Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC), and Kick It Out.

Alongside this, we continue to work closely with all our Supporter Groups, including Inclusive Irons, Pride of Irons and our Disabled Supporters’ Board to ensure the supporter voice is heard in all club decision making and work with them on dedicated initiatives, events and activities.

Reporting Matchday Incidents

We encourage everyone to stand side by side in supporting their team, providing an equal and inclusive experience for all of our supporters, whether that be on matchday, online, via our day-to-day services, or through consultation with our supporters’ groups and forums, everyone is valued equally.

We promote our values, of equality, inclusion and togetherness, and celebrate diversity amongst our fanbase at all times. However, we understand that we cannot legislate for everyone’s behaviour before they come into the stadium or in the way they conduct themselves on social media or in their private lives. West Ham United is unequivocal in its stance - we have a zero-tolerance approach to any form of discrimination or abusive behaviour.

We recognise our responsibility to dealing with incidents in the right way and the safety and welfare of our supporters is our utmost priority. All incidents reported to the Club, on matchday or any other forum, are subject to the Club’s offences, sanctions and educational processes.

The Club provides a number of reporting mechanisms on matchday to ensure that supporters can report any incidents discreetly and in confidence, this includes a dedicated SMS reporting service telephone/textphone number which is advertised in the matchday programme, on the big screens, on the Hammers Help centre, on WHUFC.com, via social media and in all of the gangways in the upper and lower tier of the stadium.

Should you have witness or experience any incidents on matchday you can report your concerns by:

• Speaking with the nearest steward or Supporter Liaison Officer
• Sending a text to the SMS reporting service by texting Support to 83121

All incidents are reported to the Control Room. Text messages received are treated in the strictest confidence and are sent directly to the control room. This will enable the safety and security team to monitor and handle the situation at the time of it occurring.

The safety and security of all supporters is of paramount important to us and we are committed to ensuring that everyone has a safe and enjoyable experience while they are at London Stadium.

It is vitally important to our investigations that any incidents are reported to us at the time they occur. This will enable us to monitor the situation and take the appropriate action on the day. However, if you do need to report any concerns to the Club after the game, please contact [email protected]. For a Safeguarding concern, please email [email protected] or for more details, visit the main Safeguarding page here.

Reporting Online or social media abuse

We do everything possible to ensure our online communities are safe spaces for all West Ham United supporters. We recognise that football cultivates a range of opinions from across the fanbase and so we ask that supporters engage on our platforms respectfully at all times, even when their views may differ. To help ensure our platforms continue to be safe and fun places for fans to enjoy, we encourage supporters to report any concerns to us and the platform host directly.

The Club will not tolerate any form of discrimination on its social media platforms and will take action against any offending posts working with supporters and the platform host or moderator.

If supporters do witness or experience any form of discrimination online, they should report it to us and the platform host/moderator in the following ways:

X

• By DM to @WestHamHelp
• By reporting the post and the user account directly to X
• We recommend that posts are reported to the Club and to X

Email

• By email to the Supporter Services team at [email protected]

All enquiries and concerns are treated in the strictest confidence; however, we will require as much information as possible about the situation and any concerns you may have in order to conduct a thorough investigation.

All complaints are thoroughly investigated and there are a number of ways that we choose to take action. Whether it be via the suspension or banning of membership, Acceptable Behaviour Agreements, or via educational sessions, all situations are reviewed on a case-by-case basis and outcomes are designed to support the safety and welfare of all supporters and staff and to ensure that everyone can continue to support their team.

For the latest EDI news, please follow this link.