The West Ham fans, including the friends and families of players, had came under attack following the final whistle of their 1-0 victory at the AFAS Stadion in Alkmaar.
A group of black-shirted AZ ultras had torn down a gate within the stadium before charging towards the small section of West Ham supporters seated behind the dugouts at the 20,000-seater arena.
But the Dutch assailants were met with fierce resistance from the West Ham supporters, with pictures and footage from the night showing how individual fans had protected the families behind them by fighting off the attackers.
One of those fans was Knoll, seen in pictures with a torn t-shirt, exchanging blows with a number of balaclava-wearing Dutch ultras. Speaking from his home in Hampton, west London and still sporting injuries from the fracas, said he decided to intervene after he spotted “50 or 60″ ultras “with hoodies and balaclavas” approach his section.
“I knew something was going to happen,” said the electrician. “It was either a case of doing nothing and probably taking a bit of a beating or doing something about it. So I just took the high ground and placed myself at the bottom of the stairs where I knew they had to come up.”
Freddie Bonfanti, who was in the crowd, was among hundreds of fans to heap praise on Knoll for defending supporters. He posted on social media: “Knollsy the legend. Stopped the home fans from getting to the players’ families.” West Ham and France goalkeeper Alphonse Areola also called Knoll a “legend” for helping keep the players’ families safe.
On the praise he had received from Areola, he added: “It makes me very proud, to get a message from a player is lovely really. And a lot of recognition from other people. But it was done on the defensive, it wasn’t an act of aggression. They’ve come to under 50 yards of us so it was just a case of limiting the damage basically.”
Explaining his actions, he said: “We breed it into our children, I’ve got four kids and we just won’t tolerate bullies or anything like that and it’s gone into my family as well. It’s the thing I’ve tried to push forward in life that you don’t tolerate bullies. I won’t tolerate them, my kids won’t tolerate them.”
“I just thought the best form of defence was to attack,” he added. “You could see they were intent of causing trouble and I did not want them to get to those behind us.”
Bonfanti, also in the crowd, explained earlier how “Knollsy the legend” had “recently had a hip replacement and simply could not run”. “He is also a proud man and he was genuinely concerned about the players’ partners and ex-West Ham players sitting all around us,” Bonfanti added. “He did what he had to do. I am proud to call him a mate and glad he stopped what could have been a much worse incident.
“We were sitting behind [West Ham defender] Thilo Kehrer’s girlfriend. Knollsy was worried about her and walked to the top of the stairwell, fending off the storming Alkmaar fans. He is a lovely bloke and did what he felt was right at the time. He stopped those fans.”
Bonfanti added that Knollsy was sent a message of support by West Ham’s Declan Rice in 2021, when he was in “bad shape”.A video recorded on a mobile phone from within the stadium showed how another West Ham fan held off at least a dozen AZ supporters from the top of a stairway in the stands.
West Ham’s players also tried to join the fray, with Flynn Downes, Michail Antonio and Said Benrahma among those who attempted to make their way into the stands.
Uefa will wait for the full reports from the night before deciding on what disciplinary action to take against AZ and their supporters. It is understood that they could also appoint an inspector to investigate the situation more deeply.
Over the coming days, UK police officers will also meet with Czech Republic counterparts ahead of the Prague final amid mounting pressure on forces to ensure there is a “ring of steel” security plan in place.
