The people behind England's official 2018 World Cup bid today joined those who had already condemned last nights violence at Upton Park. But there can be no disputing that nerves must be shattered after one of the worst outbreaks of football violence between West Ham and Millwall fans during the League Cup fixture.
After numerous outbreaks of violence outside the ground before and after kick off during which one man was stabbed, and three pitch invasions during the game, serious questions about England's ability to host the world cup will be raised.
England faces stiff competition from a number of other countries including Russia, Japan and the USA already, and last nights scenes may well have a negative impact on our bid to host the competition in 2018.
Both the World Cup bid and the FA have expressed this as an 'isolated' incident, and made fir their belief that much has been done over recent years to irradiate such scenes fro English football.
Nonetheless, the violence at Upton Park, during which West Ham emerged as 3-1 victors, will certainly have an impact upon the bid, although to what extent remains to be seen.
We record all IP addresses on the Sportnetwork message boards which may be required by the authorities in case of defamatory or abusive comment.
We seek to monitor the Message Boards at regular intervals.
We do not associate Sportnetwork with any of the comments and do not take responsibility for any statements or opinions expressed on the Message Boards.
If you have any cause for concern over any material posted here please let us know as soon as possible by e-mailing
abuse@sportnetwork.net