The first of our two exclusive charity auctions, giving young supporters the chance to be a matchday mascot for our FA Cup fifth round replay against Bolton Wanderers at Upton Park on Wednesday, March 15, closed on Friday afternoon with a fantastic winning bid of £1,600.00.
The auction was again held to raise money to help the young
family of Ian Jackson, a long-serving and loyal member of staff at
Upton Park, who tragically died in January.
The winning bid came from season ticket holder Mr Samir Saleh,
whose 14-year-old son Adam will proudly lead out the Hammers
against Bolton next week.
Sadly, the auction encountered problems when we were forced to
extend the closing time on Friday afternoon. This was due to the
fact that a bid, which led to the highest bid total increasing
substantially, was discovered to be hoax. This, in turn, may have
caused many supporters to back out of bidding. With the entire
proceeds of the auction going to a worthy cause, we accepted every
bid in good faith and it was extremely disappointing that one
individual chose to abuse that faith.
However, West Ham United would like to thank everyone who placed a
genuine bid in the auction and helped to raise such a substantial
sum of money for the Jackson family.
Our second charity auction, for exactly the same prize of a
matchday mascot package at the FA Cup fifth round replay against
Bolton Wanderers on March 15, will begin on whufc.com on Monday,
March 6 at 10.30am.