AZ Alkmaar v West Ham United

UEFA Europa Conference League semi-final second leg

Members of the WHUST board today had an online session with Football Supporters Europe and supporter reps from AZ Alkmaar. We exchanged information concerning supporters for the home and away legs of our Europa Conference semi-final legs.

The main change from previous European matches hosted in Alkmaar is that West Ham supporters will be encouraged to go to the fan zone set up in the Paardenmarkt in Alkmaar as Waagplain is now a designated home supporters location for this match. It is about a 15-minute walk from the station to Paardenmarkt. There will be food and drinks outlets as well as entertainment.

Supporters who do not have match tickets are advised not to travel to Alkmaar itself, although the police are currently not intending those without tickets to be stopped. There will probably be no bars in Alkmaar showing the match to encourage those without tickets to stay in Amsterdam. Amsterdam has a lot of large sports bars that can accommodate football supporters.

Trains from Amsterdam Centraal to Alkmaar run 4 times an hour - direct trains take 37 minutes and those with 1 change take 47 minutes. Details of trains throughout Netherlands are available at: https://www.ns.nl/en/journeyplanner

Free buses will be provided before and after the match for West Ham supporters. They will depart from Paardenmarkt to the stadium before the match and from the stadium after the match to the railway station for supporters to return to Amsterdam.

Currently alcohol will be available in the away section with no restrictions on drinking in view of the pitch. This may change if police decide circumstances on the day determine otherwise.

Only small bags are allowed in the stadium, but Alkmaar supporter reps suggest taking as little as possible. There is no place to leave a large bag at the stadium but there are lockers at Alkmaar train station.

We would like to thank Football Supporters Europe and Alkmaar supporter reps for meeting us today and answering our questions