After Thursday night’s historic opening game at the London Stadium, West Ham officially bring the curtain down on the hugely impressive new arena with a special meeting with Juventus in the Betway cup.
An opening ceremony before the match will get things underway before we host the Serie A champions in Stratford, and we’ll be proudly showing off our new incredible home.
But what’s at stake? Betway have organised an incredible looking trophy that’ll be up for grabs for the Man of the Match on Sunday and it perfectly compliments the club’s historic transition from the Thames Ironworks to West Ham United – and beyond.
It was a lifelong Hammers fan who designed and made the Betway trophy, which proves just how much thought and time went in to making it the perfect piece of silverware.
He said: “It didn’t take me long to actually decide the way I was going to make it.
“When you think of the Thames Ironworks, you immediately think of ships and bridges. In them days, everything was made of plate and rivets.
“They didn’t have the technology like they have now. And me, personally, I think the way metalwork was made then was fantastic.
“The shape of the new badge is the bowl of the HMS Warrior. So I thought we’ll peel back the design of the Thames Ironworks badge and show the new badge.
“One of the things I’ve tried my hardest to do is to make the actual Thames Ironwork shield part of it look old, as if it was made all them years ago.”
Have a watch of the video below and listen to Russ speak of his passion behind the club, its historic roots and the story behind the trophy’s design…
