It’s hammer time!

West Ham United are being hotly tipped to knock London rivals Arsenal off the top of the Premier League of personalised registrations.

Auctioneers for DVLA Personalised Registrations are bracing themselves for a bidding frenzy as they put the number plate WE57 HAM under the hammer later this month.

And they believe interest in the plate will be so great it could even sell for more than the hottest football personal registration auctioned to date – AR53 NAL – which went for a whopping £36,000 in 2004.

Currently, the league table of top football plates, reads:

AR53 NAL - £36,000
V1 LLA - £35,000
ALB 10N - £19,000
DER 8Y - £14,500
S41 NTS - £11,500
PRE 570N - £9,400
1 WBA - £8,400
W1 GAN - £7,700
EVR 70N - £6,400
S9 URS - £4,600
CHE 153A - £4,300
BOL 70N - £4,000
FOR 35T - £3,100

Damian Lawson, Marketing Manager for DVLA Personalised Registrations, said: ‘We get huge amounts of interest whenever we release football related registration numbers for auction, but we are particularly excited by this one.

‘We know what a large and passionate support there is for West Ham and because the number reads so well we think it stands a real chance of topping the table of football plates.’

The auction of WE57 HAM will be the climax of a three-day sale of 1,500 highly desirable numbers by DVLA Personalised Registrations at Down Hall Hotel in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, from October 24 to 26.

Details of all the registration numbers on sale and how to bid at the auction can be found at dvlaregistrations.co.uk/auctions.