Fiorentina president says West Ham treated his players like ‘animals’

Fiorentina President Rocco Commisso has accused West Ham of treating them like “animals” during their Europa Conference League final victory.

West Ham’s triumph, ending a 43-year trophy drought, was marred by incidents on and off the pitch.

During the match, Fiorentina’s striker Luca Jovic suffered a broken nose and left-back Cristiano Biraghi was struck by an object thrown from the crowd, leaving him with a bloodied face.

Expressing his disappointment, Commisso told local media, “I expected to win, but it wasn’t like that. 

“But there have been episodes on the pitch where the referee had to make the difference.

“I spoke to the president of the Premier League, those of West Ham are animals in the way they treated ours. It’s not right.

“This match could be won 3-0. I’m sorry for the fans, they deserved more.”

Fiorentina separately issued a strong condemnation of the incident involving Biraghi, stating, “This unacceptable behaviour obviously affected the performance of the footballer and his team-mates, who had their attention drawn away from footballing matters by the threats to their own safety.”

The club expressed certainty that UEFA would take appropriate action to punish those responsible and prevent such situations from recurring.

In related news, Prague police reported the arrest of a total of 23 fans, one of whom was a West Ham supporter, while the remaining 22 were Fiorentina supporters.

The incident involved Fiorentina fans attacking West Ham supporters in a bar in central Prague, resulting in the detention of 17 individuals associated with the Italian club.