Sunderland v West Ham United
Premier League, Stadium of Light, Saturday 16 August 2025, 3pm BST
West Ham United kick-off the Club’s 30th season as a Premier League club with a trip to newly promoted Sunderland on Saturday afternoon.
The Hammers, who are playing in the Premier League for the 14th consecutive season, travel to face hosts who are returning to the top-flight after an eight-year absence after winning the EFL Championship Play-Offs in May.
The Black Cats have been on a metaphorical rollercoaster in the Premier League era, winning promotion to the top tier on five occasions, but also being relegated on five occasions. They also dropped down to EFL League One in 2018, spending three seasons in the third tier before coming up via the Play-Offs in 2022, then completing their comeback after three seasons in the Championship.
The 49,000-capacity Stadium of Light will be rocking on Saturday as the Mackems celebrate a welcome return to the Premier League. French head coach Régis Le Bris led the Black Cats to an unexpected promotion in his first season in charge and, working under Chairman and majority owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, has spent the summer remoulding his squad for the challenges ahead.
Sunderland have reportedly spent well over £100 million on eight new first-team squad members and West Ham will be the first opponents to find out how Le Bris’s new jigsaw fits together this weekend!
Travel…
Despite the long distance, the Stadium of Light is relatively easy to find, as it towers over the River Wear just across the Wearmouth Bridge from the city centre.
Sunderland is the nearest railway station, located ten minutes’ walk away across the bridge. The Tyne and Wear Metro serves the Stadium via both Stadium of Light and St Peter’s stations. After matches, fans travelling towards South Hylton must board at St Peter’s, while those heading northbound towards Newcastle must use Stadium of Light station.
Bus numbers 3, 4, 13, 35, 35A and 56 all stop nearby. The city’s main bus station, Park Lane Interchange, is within walking distance of the stadium.
If you are driving, park-and-ride services are easily accessible from the A19 and A1 via Wessington Way (A1231).
Tickets…
The first 90% of tickets sold out to Bondholders, Away Scheme Members and Season Ticket Holders with 13+ Loyalty Points. The remaining 10% (308 tickets) were then made available by a ballot process to Season Ticket Holders who had yet to purchase for this fixture. The ballot closed at 9am on Tuesday 5 August.
We Are West Ham. United...
West Ham United has a zero-tolerance approach to any form of discrimination. Equality, equity, diversity and inclusion are at the heart of the Club and we are committed to ensuring that everyone feels welcome to attend our fixtures in a safe environment.
Any form of discriminatory behaviour or chanting is unacceptable; it has no place in football and has serious criminal consequences. West Ham United will take the strongest possible action against any individual found to be engaging in such behaviour, including potential lifetime bans and referral to the police.
The Club can also face disciplinary action if any of its supporters are found to have engaged in this behaviour, which is not representative of the West Ham United fanbase and will not be tolerated by the Club.
West Ham United provides a number of support mechanisms on matchday to ensure that supporters can report any incidents discreetly and in confidence. To report any incidents during Saturday's match, either follow Sunderland's reporting procedures at Stadium of Light or contact West Ham United at [email protected]. Please provide as much information as possible, including the stand, row, seat number, description of the offender and incident.
We believe that the overwhelming majority of West Ham United supporters share these values and will work with us to continue to protect the Club’s status as an equity leader in the Premier League, a position recognised and acknowledged through our award and continuous retention of the Advanced level Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Standard – the League’s highest accolade attainable in this area. Anyone attending matches who does not share these values, does not share the diverse and inclusive values that West Ham United and our community stand for.
Please view our Supporter Conduct Charter for more information.
Advanced Search Policy...
For this fixture, there will be an advanced search at the away turnstiles in place. For the advanced search the following items cannot be brought into the stadium: coins, vapes, power banks, flares, smoke canisters and/or umbrellas.
Please note that all coins collected will be donated to a charity of West Ham United’s choice following the fixture.
For vapes, power banks, umbrellas and any other larger items a collection procedure is in place. You can leave your item with the steward team before entry, you will be provided with a collection ticket and can return to the same area to collect your item(s) from the steward team after the game.
How To Follow…
You can follow Saturday’s match live on our official website and app from 1.30pm, with confirmed team news, a matchday gallery and live blog, followed by a match report, post-match reaction, goals and extended highlights after the final whistle.
Team News…
A host of players could make their debuts for both clubs after joining this summer.
For West Ham United, left wing-back El Hadji Malick Diouf, wing-back Kyle Walker-Peters, striker Callum Wilson and goalkeeper Mads Hermansen could make their first competitive appearances after arriving from Slavia Prague, Southampton, Newcastle United and Leicester City respectively.
For Sunderland, eight new signings could make their debuts. Experienced Switzerland midfielder Granit Xhaka has signed from Bayer Leverkusen, Ivorian winger Simon Adingra from Brighton & Hove Albion, central midfielders Habib Diarra and Noah Sadiki from Strasbourg and Union Saint-Gilloise respectively, winger Chemsdine Talbi from Club Brugge, Mozambique left-back Reinildo Mandava from Atlético Madrid, Dutch goalkeeper Robin Roefs from NEC and former West Ham left-back Arthur Masuaku from Beşiktaş.
Opposition…
Sunderland AFC was formed by a group of school teachers in 1879 and joined the Football League in 1890, winning their first First Division championship in just their second season in 1891/92, then retained the title in 1892/93 and won it again in 1894/95 and 1901/02.
Further titles followed in 1912/13 and 1935/36, while Sunderland also finished as runners-up on five occasions and won their first FA Cup before the Second World War. Since then, however, top-tier success has proved far harder to come by.
An FA Cup triumph in 1973 as a Second Division (now EFL Championship) aside, Sunderland have had to make do with winning second-tier titles and an EFL Trophy and reaching but losing an FA Cup final in 1992 and two League Cup finals in 1985 and 2014.
The Black Cats were relegated from the First Division in 1957/58, ending their ever-present top-flight presence after 68 years. Since then, Sunderland have won eleven promotions and suffered ten relegations, dropping to the third tier on two occasions, in 1986/87 and 2017/18.
In 1997, Sunderland left their historic Roker Park home of 99 years for the Stadium of Light on the north bank of the River Wear, nearer the city centre. With a capacity of 49,000, it remains an imposing and atmospheric stadium nearly three decades after opening.
The Stadium of Light has experienced plenty of ups and downs in its 28-year existence, including unforgettable and instantly forgettable Premier League campaigns, iconic managers in Peter Reid, Roy Keane, Martin O’Neill, Paolo Di Canio and Sam Allardyce, and outstanding players in Kevin Phillips, Jordan Henderson, Darren Bent, Jermain Defoe and the recently departed Jobe Bellingham.
Since February 2021, the club has been majority owned by Swiss-French businessman Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, who has overseen another upturn in Sunderland’s fortunes. Former Lorient boss Régis Le Bris was appointed as head coach in June 2024 and led the Black Cats to promotion via the EFL Championship Play-Offs in his first season.
Now, Louis-Dreyfus, Le Bris and Sunderland’s large and passionate fanbase will hope their fifth spell as a Premier League club is a long and successful one.
Previous Meetings…
It is 98 years since we made our historic first visit to Sunderland, for a goalless draw at Roker Park on 25 August 1923 in what was West Ham United’s first-ever First Division fixture.
Our biggest victory away at Sunderland was a 5-1 First Division win in September 1967, when 1966 FIFA World Cup winners Geoff Hurst, Bobby Moore and Martin Peters were all on target.
Hurst then scored six goals in a Club record 8-0 First Division win over Sunderland at the Boleyn Ground the following season in October 1968.
Since the Stadium of Light opened in 1997, our best result was a 2-0 win in the Championship in December 2004, while we have also won there twice in the Premier League, in October 2002 and March 2014.
Match Officials…
Referee: Rob Jones
Assistant Referees: Nick Greenhalgh and Matthew Wilkes
Fourth Official: Anthony Taylor
VAR: Stuart Attwell
Assistant VAR: Natalie Aspinall
Rob Jones has been confirmed as the referee for West Ham United's 2025/26 Premier League opener away to Sunderland this weekend.
Promoted to the EFL list at the start of the 2016/17 season, Jones took charge of his first top-flight clash in December 2019, and was promoted to Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) Select Group One ahead of the 2020/21 campaign.
Jones takes the whistle for the ninth game involving West Ham, having refereed the Hammers, then managed by Julen Lopetegui, twice last season, as we ran out 2-0 winners away at Crystal Palace in August 2024, before a 1-1 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion in December.
The 38-year-old Merseysider has been the man in the middle at three finals during his career so far, the last of which was Wycombe Wanderers’ victory over Oxford United in the EFL League One Play-Off final in July 2020, little under a year after he refereed Oxford’s shock win over West Ham in the third round of the EFL Cup.
In total last season, Jones showed 95 yellow cards and three red cards across 22 Premier League matches and, most recently, he oversaw Ferencváros’ UEFA Champions League qualifier against FC Noah in late July.
Nick Greenhalgh and Matthew Wilkes will serve as the assistant referees, Anthony Taylor will be the fourth official, while VAR duties will be overseen by Stuart Attwell, assisted by Natalie Aspinall.
Click HERE for more on Saturday's officials.
