West Ham United v Viborg FF
UEFA Europa Conference League play-off round first leg, London Stadium, Wednesday 18 August, 7.45pm BST
West Ham United kick-off their UEFA Europa Conference League campaign with a play-off round first-leg tie with Danish opponents Viborg FF on Thursday evening.
The Hammers enter European competition for the second consecutive season, having reached the UEFA Europa League semi-finals last term, and hopes are high that the east Londoners can put together another extended continental challenge in 2022/23.
West Ham are entering at this stage, while Viborg have already got past Lithuanian opponents Sūduva (2-0 on aggregate) and Faroe Islands Cup winners B36 Tórshavn (5-1 on aggregate) to set up their trip to England.
The return leg will take place in Denmark next Thursday 25 August, at Viborg's 9,600 capacity Energi Viborg Arena.
Should we win on aggregate or on penalties, we will join 21 other UECL play-off round winners and ten clubs eliminated from the Europa League play-off round in the group stage. There, we will face three group-stage opponents home and away.
The UECL will then take a break until the New Year, kicking-off with the preliminary knockout round in February and round of 16 in March, with the eight group runners-up going through to a preliminary knockout round, where they will face a third-place group-stage finisher from the Europa League.
From there, the competition follows a two-legged knockout format all the way to the final, which will be hosted at Slavia Prague’s Fortuna Arena in the Czech Republic on 7 June next year.
Tickets…
Ticket are still on sale for Thursday's first leg, with prices starting from just £5 for U18s and £20 for Adults, reaffirming our commitment to affordable family football and meaning you can make it a night to remember for all the family in the summer holidays.
Click here for full pricing information, and here to secure your seats now.
How To Follow…
Thursday's tie will be broadcast live in the UK by BT Sport 1 and BT Sport Ultimate.
You can also follow the action via our live blog on whufc.com and our app and across our social media channels. We will also have highlights and exclusive reaction for you after the final whistle.
Travel...
A strike by RMT members means supporters are advised to avoid travelling on Greater Anglia, c2c and other services run by National Rail operating companies.
Greater Anglia services from Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire will be severely reduced all end before 6pm, with no return services to the same destinations after the match.
c2c services from south Essex will also be reduced and end by 6.30pm, likewise with no return services to the same destinations after the match.
On Southeastern, only 44 of 180 stations will be open, services will be severely reduced and will end around 6pm.
TfL London Overground services will be reduced between 8am-6pm and no service will run after 6pm.
Most TfL London Underground and bus services will run as normal, but travellers should expect disruption on the following lines:
Elizabeth line
- Reduced service
District line
- No service between Wimbledon and Parson's Green, and Richmond and Turnham Green after 6pm
Bakerloo line
- No service north of Queen's Park
Official Programme
West Ham United's 116-page Official Programme returns for Thursday's UEFA Europa Conference League play-off round first leg with Viborg FF.
The biggest issue in English football, the Irons' Official Programme is available to order online now for just £4, plus £1.49 postage and packaging*.
Copies will be sent via first-class post. Full-season subscriptions are also available, including all Premier League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup home issues, from just £119, from the Club's official West Ham Programmes shop.
Thursday's issue features an in-depth interview with lifelong Hammer and summer signing Flynn Downes, talking about growing up in a West Ham family, his football education at Ipswich Town and joining the Irons.
Captain Declan Rice and manager David Moyes pen their exclusive columns, while there are also interviews with Danish-raised Hammers legend Winston Reid and former West Ham and Denmark defenders Marc Rieper and Lars Jacobsen.
With a free double-sided A3 poster included, you can order your copy for just £4 each, plus £1.49 postage and packaging*, by clicking here now.
Team News...
New signings Gianluca Scamacca, Maxwel Cornet, Flynn Downes and Thilo Kehrer could all make their full debuts for West Ham United following their respective arrivals from Sassuolo, Burnley, Ipswich Town and Paris Saint-Germain.
Centre-backs Angelo Ogbonna and Craig Dawson are getting closer to making their respective returns from injury.
David Moyes will definitely be without summer signing Nayef Aguerd, who suffered an ankle injury in the pre-season match at Rangers and has been ruled out for an extended period.
Captain Declan Rice and Aaron Cresswell are both suspended, as is manager Moyes, for transgressions during the UEFA Europa League semi-final second leg at Eintracht Frankfurt in May. Rice will also miss the second leg in Denmark.
Opposition…
Viborg FF was formed in 1896 as a multi-sports club, with sections for athletics, gymnastics, boxing, weightlifting, skiing, hockey, wrestling and even cricket.
The football section was introduced a few years later, with the club’s first major success coming in 1924, when Viborg won the Mesterräkken, the biggest competition on Denmark’s Jutland peninsula at the time.
Viborg remained an amateur club and competed in the regional leagues for the next 35 years before moving up to the newly formed 4th Division in 1959.
In 1981, the Greens reached the top-flight – then called the 1st Division – for the first time in their history, but finished bottom with just 15 points and were relegated after just one season. The same happened in 1990, when Viborg finished bottom again, this time with just 14 points.
The Greens returned to the top tier – now called the Superliga – as champions in 1997/98, edging out B93 on goal difference.
In 1999, the club moved to full-time professionalism, with instant results, as Viborg finished fourth in the Superliga and won the Danish Cup for the first time in their history the following summer, defeating Aalborg 1-0 in the final at Parken Stadium in the capital, Copenhagen, in front of over 18,000 fans.
The Danish Super Cup followed in July 2000, courtesy of a penalty shootout win over Herfølge, before Viborg scored a surprise 1-0 aggregate victory over Russian Top Division side CSKA Moscow in the UEFA Cup first round, before bowing out to Spanish club Rayo Vallecano on away goals.
With those successes still fresh in minds, Viborg established an academy, FK Viborg, in 2002, linking Viborg FF with a number of local youth clubs to provide a pathway to the senior team and professional football.
Among the first youngsters to join FK Viborg was current Tottenham Hotspur and Wales defender Ben Davies, whose family lived in the town between 2001-04.
Back to senior level and Viborg have experienced plenty of ups and downs over the past 15 years. They were relegated in 2008, promoted in 2013, relegated in 2014, promoted in 2015, relegated again in 2017 and promoted back to the Superliga as champions in 2021.
Last season, Viborg finished seventh, meaning they had to contend with a ten-match relegation round. However, by topping that table, their reward was a one-off European play-off with Aalborg, which the Greens won on penalties to qualify for this season’s UEFA Europa Conference League.
The second qualifying round saw Viborg drawn to face Lithuanian opponents Sūduva, where a goal in each leg from Danish midfielder Sofus Berger and Nigerian forward Ibrahim Said saw them earn a 2-0 aggregate victory.
That set up a third qualifying round tie with Faroe Islands Cup winners B36 Tórshavn, who proved to be no match for Thursday's visitors across two legs.
Match Officials
Referee: Marco Di Bello (ITA)
Assistant Referees: Fabiano Petri (ITA) & Giorgio Peretti (ITA)
Fourth Official: Juan Luca Sacchi (ITA)
Marco Di Bello is one of Italy's top match officials.
The 41-year-old, who was born in the port of Brindisi in August 1981, is a banker by trade, but has combined that occupation with his role as a referee.
Di Bello was promoted to the Serie B list in 2011, before joining the Serie A list a year later. In 2018, he joined FIFA's list and officiated his first senior international match between Russia and Cyprus in UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying in June 2019.
