West Ham shot to the top of the premier league of personalised registration numbers when the licence plate WE57 HAM went for a record-breaking £57,000 at auction.

A fierce bidding war erupted at the DVLA Personalised Registrations sale in Bishop’s Stortford as dozens of die-hard fans of the club battled it out for the ultimate Hammers status symbol.

And that sent the price rocketing and forced the winning bidder, who bid anonymously over the internet, to smash the previous record for a football-related registration – the £36,000 paid for AR53 NAL in 2004.

Damian Lawson, Marketing Manager for DVLA Personalised Registrations, was delighted by the huge sum fetched by the star lot.

He said, “The atmosphere in the auction room was electric – it was like a cup final. The fans bidding showed the same passion they do on the terraces and we could only watch as the price kept on rising and rising.

“We knew there was going to be a lot of interest and we thought there was a good chance the plate could knock AR53 NAL off the top of the table but we couldn’t believe just how much it went for.”