Sue your favourite team

Might the Hammers next fixture be in court?

By Dan Warren BBC Sport Online

West Ham fans listen up. If you are fed up with the misery of watching your favourite team fail again and again, there could be a simple solution.

Sue them.

Yes, take Glenn Roeder's (un)happy Hammers to court. It may seem radical - outrageous even - but it does have a certain logic.

After all, companies are winning huge sums from injuries caused by shoddy pavement repairs, while burger restaurants have been taken to court for making people fat.

So maybe it is sensible to act against the nation's sporting teams, who cause misery for untold millions on a weekly basis.

Everyone would concede that the England cricket team have caused mental distress to most of us

Legal expert John Taylor

Unsurprisingly, this idea has emanated from the litigious US, where success-challenged NFL outfit the Cincinnati Bengals are being sued.

The action has been brought by politician Todd Portune, whose lawyer says he is acting to "defend the interests of the citizens of (the) city."

The lawsuit alleges fraud, civil conspiracy, anti-trust violations and breach of contract, after the Bengals moved into a public-owned stadium, signing a lease which required them to field a competitive team.

So could this signal an avalanche of disgruntled sports fans taking revenge on the teams which have failed them?

Well, there is no need for the boardroom at West Ham to break out in a cold sweat just yet.

John Taylor, head of sport and a partner at legal experts Hammonds, warns there is little chance of success.

"If you were a fan of West Ham you could say the team has not been performing to their usual standards," he said.

Watching sport is actually not that much fun

"But it would be very tough to bring a claim if you were a season ticket holder or a banker, or even a landlord at Upton Park just because the players haven't been performing competently."

So the mere fact that your team is not very good is unlikely to win you much sympathy in the courtroom.

But what about the severe mental stress caused, for example, by staying up all night to watch England's cricketers flop time and time again? Especially if you have Australian friends.

"Everyone would concede that the England cricket team have caused mental distress to most of us," admits Taylor.

"But I'm afraid that's part of the sport. There are ups as well as downs and uncertainty of outcome.

"You only have a case if you've got a specific clause in some agreement that you've entered where the team specifies that it will achieve X or Y.

"If it's simply because the team haven't performed up to scratch, well I'm afraid that's the lot of football and sports supporters everywhere."

The situation is the same for fans of individual sporting stars.

Unless a sponsor has demanded, in writing, a certain level of performance, your sporting hero can flop as often as he or she chooses.

Which is good news for Anna Kournikova, at least.

So the law is unforgiving when it comes to supporters of failing teams. Essentially, the position is: "You chump. You decided to support them. You live with their failures."

Says Taylor: "Part of the tradition in this country is that supporters grin and bear it, in the good times and the bad times.

"I can only offer the long-suffering fans the same comfort that any other fan has.

"It might get better next year."