The Night West Ham Played Behind Closed Doors

 West Ham play Castilla behind closed doors in the Cup Winners’ Cup in October 1980 after crowd trouble at the first leg in Madrid. Photograph: David Ashdown/Getty Images
West Ham play Castilla behind closed doors in the Cup Winners’ Cup in October 1980 after crowd trouble at the first leg in Madrid. Photograph: David Ashdown/Getty Images
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The Night West Ham Played Behind Closed Doors

 West Ham play Castilla behind closed doors in the Cup Winners’ Cup in October 1980 after crowd trouble at the first leg in Madrid. Photograph: David Ashdown/Getty Images
West Ham play Castilla behind closed doors in the Cup Winners’ Cup in October 1980 after crowd trouble at the first leg in Madrid. Photograph: David Ashdown/Getty Images

At half-time West Ham’s former chairman Len Cearns was sent on a futile mission by his fellow directors. They wanted him to go down to the home dressing room to ask John Lyall if there was any way his team could possibly remember that the foul language being used in the heat of battle was floating away from the pitch, rattling around the empty terraces and causing some discomfort for the people sitting in the posh seats.

“There was a lot of swearing going on in the game,” Alvin Martin says as he recalls West Ham hosting a European tie behind closed doors in the autumn of 1980. “You don’t realise it. You’re communicating in a factory way.”

It is nearly 40 years since Upton Park’s ghost game and Martin, who played in central defence as West Ham reached the second round of the Cup Winners’ Cup by winning the second leg of their tie against Castilla, chuckles when he is asked if his teammates paid any attention to the chairman’s request. “No. In all the years I played with Trevor Brooking he never used a foul word. That was exceptional. But that’s the way we communicated. You can’t just switch that off.”

Broadcasters might want to keep that in mind as English football grapples with the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It is almost inevitable games will be played behind closed doors if the season resumes and it will be challenging for players to adjust. Martin’s teammate David Cross describes it as an eerie experience and remembers finding it hard to summon the usual intensity against Castilla, Real Madrid’s B team.

“You were conscious of your voice echoing around the stadium,” Cross says. “Voices would bounce off the stands and back to you. You didn’t get that bounce back off the crowd. You had to shout very loud on a Saturday afternoon to make sure one of your teammates 15 yards away could hear you. We were used to talking very loudly on the pitch.

“In training sometimes we’d play 11 v 11. Sometimes in our own stadium. We were used to playing football every day with no fans there. It’s just on matchday your fans gave you that atmosphere. I think it took us 15 to 20 minutes to realise we were in a proper match.”

In West Ham’s case it was a one-off, a punishment by Uefa after crowd trouble marred the first leg at the Bernabéu. For Castilla, who had qualified after losing the Copa del Rey final against Real, the Spanish champions, playing at such a famous ground was meant to be the stuff of dreams. In the stands it was anything but. There were ugly scenes in the away end and there was tragedy after the game when a West Ham fan died after being hit by a bus in the chaos outside the ground.

Uefa responded by fining West Ham £7,750 and ordering them to play their next two European home games at least 187 miles away from Upton Park. Sunderland’s Roker Park was one possibility for the second leg, while Martin remembers talk of the second leg taking place in Middlesbrough. Cross says the players were told they may have to play in France.

After an appeal by West Ham, Uefa decided to stage the game at Upton Park with no supporters present. There was also no live coverage on television and the official attendance was 262. “We would have relied on the fans at Upton Park, especially on a midweek game under the floodlights,” Martin says. Cross was more upbeat. “Playing at Upton Park was still an advantage for us, even if we didn’t have our fans, which is usually worth a goal,” the former striker says. “We were on familiar territory.”

Steve Bacon, West Ham’s former club photographer, was one of the 262. “There were lots of fans milling outside,” he says. “I was in the stadium and because there was no crowd we were able to wander round as we wanted. I went up the back of the North Bank and did the pictures from there. You could hear the players shouting to each other.

“Eddie Baily, one of John Lyall’s backroom staff, was a bit foul-mouthed. I can remember him effing and blinding above anything else in the ground. I could also hear Bryan Butler doing the commentary on BBC radio.”

West Ham had lost the first leg 3-1, but while they were in Division Two, they were dangerous on their day. They had beaten Arsenal in the FA Cup final that year and they saw off Castilla. Geoff Pike pulled an early goal back and although a stunning goal from Bernal, Castilla’s captain, took the game into extra time, a Cross hat-trick sealed a 5-1 win.

“I wonder if it will slow the pace down,” Martin says. “The atmosphere generates adrenaline in a player and everything becomes quicker. Players go that little bit harder into a tackle or run that little bit further and are absolutely aware that every little challenge in the game can determine the result.

“Will we see referees having an easier time? The language between the players and the referee will be much more noticeable. I think you’ll see an improvement in behaviour towards officials.

“For us it was a novelty. But playing behind closed doors will be more difficult over time. These players have been used to playing in front of 60,000 people. It will be something totally unknown to them. But the main thing is everybody will be geared up to getting results. The competitive edge will take over.”

The Guardian Sport



What to Know about Sudden Gains of the Opposition in Syria's 13-year War and Why it Matters

Fighters seize a Syrian Army tank near the international M5 highway in the area Zarbah which was taken over by anti-government factions on November 29, 2024, as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and allied groups continue their offensive in Syria's northern Aleppo province against government forces. (Photo by Rami al SAYED / AFP)
Fighters seize a Syrian Army tank near the international M5 highway in the area Zarbah which was taken over by anti-government factions on November 29, 2024, as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and allied groups continue their offensive in Syria's northern Aleppo province against government forces. (Photo by Rami al SAYED / AFP)
TT

What to Know about Sudden Gains of the Opposition in Syria's 13-year War and Why it Matters

Fighters seize a Syrian Army tank near the international M5 highway in the area Zarbah which was taken over by anti-government factions on November 29, 2024, as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and allied groups continue their offensive in Syria's northern Aleppo province against government forces. (Photo by Rami al SAYED / AFP)
Fighters seize a Syrian Army tank near the international M5 highway in the area Zarbah which was taken over by anti-government factions on November 29, 2024, as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and allied groups continue their offensive in Syria's northern Aleppo province against government forces. (Photo by Rami al SAYED / AFP)

The 13-year civil war in Syria has roared back into prominence with a surprise opposition offensive on Aleppo, one of Syria's largest cities and an ancient business hub. The push is among the opposition’s strongest in years in a war whose destabilizing effects have rippled far beyond the country's borders.
It was the first opposition attack on Aleppo since 2016, when a brutal air campaign by Russian warplanes helped Syrian President Bashar Assad retake the northwestern city. Intervention by Russia, Iran and Iranian-allied Hezbollah and other groups has allowed Assad to remain in power, within the 70% of Syria under his control.
The surge in fighting has raised the prospect of another violent front reopening in the Middle East, at a time when US-backed Israel is fighting Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, both Iranian-allied groups.
Robert Ford, the last-serving US ambassador to Syria, pointed to months of Israeli strikes on Syrian and Hezbollah targets in the area, and to Israel’s ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon this week, as factors providing Syria’s opposition groups with the opportunity to advance.
Here's a look at some of the key aspects of the new fighting:
Why does the fighting at Aleppo matter? Assad has been at war with opposition forces seeking his overthrow for 13 years, a conflict that's killed an estimated half-million people. Some 6.8 million Syrians have fled the country, a refugee flow that helped change the political map in Europe by fueling anti-immigrant far-right movements.
The roughly 30% of the country not under Assad is controlled by a range of opposition forces and foreign troops. The US has about 900 troops in northeast Syria, far from Aleppo, to guard against a resurgence by the ISIS extremist group. Both the US and Israel conduct occasional strikes in Syria against government forces and Iran-allied militias. Türkiye has forces in Syria as well, and has influence with the broad alliance of opposition forces storming Aleppo.
Coming after years with few sizeable changes in territory between Syria's warring parties, the fighting “has the potential to be really quite, quite consequential and potentially game-changing,” if Syrian government forces prove unable to hold their ground, said Charles Lister, a longtime Syria analyst with the US-based Middle East Institute. Risks include if ISIS fighters see it as an opening, Lister said.
Ford said the fighting in Aleppo would become more broadly destabilizing if it drew Russia and Türkiye— each with its own interests to protect in Syria — into direct heavy fighting against each other. -
What do we know about the group leading the offensive on Aleppo? The US and UN have long designated the opposition force leading the attack at Aleppo — Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, known by its initials HTS — as a terrorist organization.
Its leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, emerged as the leader of al-Qaeda's Syria branch in 2011, in the first months of Syria's war. His fight was an unwelcome intervention to many in Syria's opposition, who hoped to keep the fight against Assad's brutal rule untainted by violent extremism.
Golani early on claimed responsibility for deadly bombings, pledged to attack Western forces and sent religious police to enforce modest dress by women.
Golani has sought to remake himself in recent years. He renounced his al-Qaeda ties in 2016. He's disbanded his religious police force, cracked down on extremist groups in his territory, and portrayed himself as a protector of other religions. That includes last year allowing the first Christian Mass in the city of Idlib in years.
What's the history of Aleppo in the war? At the crossroads of trade routes and empires for thousands of years, Aleppo is one of the centers of commerce and culture in the Middle East.
Aleppo was home to 2.3 million people before the war. Opposition forces seized the east side of the city in 2012, and it became the proudest symbol of the advance of armed opposition factions.
In 2016, government forces backed by Russian airstrikes laid siege to the city. Russian shells, missiles and crude barrel bombs — fuel canisters or other containers loaded with explosives and metal — methodically leveled neighborhoods. Starving and under siege, the opposition surrendered Aleppo that year.
The Russian military's entry was the turning point in the war, allowing Assad to stay on in the territory he held.
This year, Israeli airstrikes in Aleppo have hit Hezbollah weapons depots and Syrian forces, among other targets, according to an independent monitoring group. Israel rarely acknowledges strikes at Aleppo and other government-held areas of Syria.