You have got to be ******* kidding me
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 1:15PM http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12909326
Tottenham Hotspur are taking Olympic chiefs to court over the decision to hand the 2012 stadium to West Ham after the Games, the BBC has learned.
The Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC), which chose West Ham ahead of Spurs last month, confirmed Tottenham are going ahead with a judicial review.
Tottenham informed the OPLC of its decision this week, as construction on the Olympic Stadium was completed.
A judge will now review the lawfulness of the decision.
More follows.
Official club statement here. A slight twist. Looks like Levy is flirting again.
At this stage the Club has not issued any proceedings against the Olympic Park Legacy Company (the OPLC) or any other party in respect of the decision regarding the award of the Olympic Stadium.
The Club’s lawyers have written letters to the OPLC, the Mayor of London, the Minister of Sport and the Secretary of State for Local Government and a separate letter to the London Borough of Newham raising a number of concerns with the processes which led to the award.
The letters also requested - in the interests of transparency - for the provision of certain information concerning the processes, which the Club considers that it is entitled to. Tottenham Hotspur will determine its next step as and when it receives a response to these letters.
Just when I thought I was out...they pull me back in...
Reader Comments (92)
Spooky, what makes you think the dirty davids can afford to put in £40m of their own money? You seem to think that they are genuinely wealthy, rather than a couple of chancers constantly on the brink of financial collapse. You are mistaken sir.
Spooky: Winning the judicial review does not mean that we will be awarded the OS. It just means that the matter will have to be reconsidered by the OPLC.
I think the thing we have to accept is that Levy is a businessman first and foremost, and clearly, if he thinks he can save untold millions by moving to Stratford, that is what he is going to try for. We are customers, and some of us might like to move to E15, and he has a 20,000 waiting list for season tickets. In spite of what the majority may feel about this, his position about dealing with the fallout of moving to E15 has limited consequences.
Regarding other options, I think Levy will only consider these if and when the OS is beyond his reach. That is clearly Plan A at the moment. If it fails, we might suddenly see "that after reconsideration, we now think we might be able to afford the NDP"
I would not be too gloomy about it at this moment in time, because DL has to win the review, and then he has to win the bidding process. There is also the fact that Orient are also looking for judicial review of the decision. It would depend on the similarity of the cases as to whether they would all be heard simultaneously, but again, my guess is to do with FA and PL rules about encroaching into other catchment areas. If Hearn were to win that against Wet Sham, that would almost certainly be applied to us too.
Incidentally, on the subject of other options I notice nobody commented on my suggestion about rotating the pitch at WHL 90 degrees and building on the car park.
If Levy can orchestrate a better deal when putting the NDLP on the table in the coming months Then I'm happy with that. But in the Real World Levy was never ever gonna Win The OP Stadium as long as he has a hole in his arse.
So knowing that we must ask ourselves, his motives. Levy is a lot of things to a lot of people, Idiot is not one of them.
Spooky: Winning the judicial review does not mean that we will be awarded the OS. It just means that the matter will have to be reconsidered by the OPLC.
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Yeah, I get it. At the minute all we are doing is forcing them to respond and possibly indirectly admit to something before we push on with the legal proceedings. I doubt anyone actually believes this we will result in a turn-over.
Im bored of Levy! How many years and then once in the champions league and everything thinks he is doing a swell job!! Get real...we are only ever adapting to what others are doing, never front of the line or forward thinking!!! Take tranfers for example..Levy loves to parade himself as King Juan big balls but what sense does it make signing a player in January when you could be having the benefit of his services since the start of the season!! It makes no sense..and nor does Levy! Spurs's motto should be "To tight to challenge" !! Who else out of the big teams would suffer Ledley King constant injurues, Defoe's inability as a striker...he would struggle to get in most premier league teams, yet we are suppose to challenge for top 4 with that muppet who after 20 years in the game still doesnt know the off side rule! We need a new stadium, new chairman, new defenders and a new front line...With suarez we could be in the top 4, let alone challenging. Lets be honest the giant stride we all want to make will never happen and the likes of modric,bale and van der vaart will get bored of Levy's tightness and bugger off....or we will sell all 3 for 90m and spend 30m..thats us..thats what we do...TO TIGHT TO CHALLENGE
Infact why don't we rent wembley or twickenham. Sod redevloping the stadium in tottenham. It's a hole of an area. The amount of cars that are broken into on way back from the game.....at least 4 or 5 and sometimes more. They should build a nuclear plant there.....maybe one that has a weakness for tsunami's and earthquakes...!!
My suspicion is that the the loan from LBN might be illegal in which case, the ponces will have to put their hands in their own pockets. They can afford it.
It does annoy me that these are two of the richest men in the UK who according to the Sunday Times Rich List are worth a combined £800 mill, and they were going to a get an unsecured loan from a Council that is announcing 1,600 redundancies as a result of gov cuts in London's poorest borough. You couldn't make it up!
Levy is a shrewd hard bastard. We all question his ethics and motives. Like I said, I hope it's poker. I'd like to believe its poker and I've said a few time before I think it is. But every now and again, I just take things at face value and it makes me nervous.
Will be fun to look back on this in a years time and see how right/wrong we were.
I 'm going to be a minority here, but I'm with Levy one this one. It seems that the process was heavily flawed, an exmaple being the leaking of West Ham getting their bid across the line well and truly before the official meeting to decide the winning bid. Who on the bid. How does that work? Pre-determined?
Even with Tottenham invited to bid, it seems that Spurs were used as pawns in the bidding process (or the illusion of a bidding process) and that's what given Levy the "sh!ts.
Spurs had spent alot of money on something that they now appear never had a chance to win in the first place.
Go Levy!
The case, if it goes ahead, will be decided, including appeals, before the end of the year.
There are strict time limits for judicial review, and they must be commenced in not more than 90 days after the decision give rise to the review. In this case, the matter must be commenced within 90 days of the replies they get to their warning letters, or if they don't get a reply, within 90 days of expiry of the notice period of the warning letters.
One of the common grounds for review is "unreasonableness". These usually fail because the test for unreasonableness is that "it must be so unreasonable, that nobody in their right mind could have come to such a conclusion"
One thing you can be certain of, is this is not a compensation claim contrived by Levy. On the other hand, there would be nothing to stop DL withdrawing the case following negotiations with the ponces to buy Keane for £10 mill (one can only dream), but the review is not (and cannot be) against Wet Sham. Judicial Review can only be undertaken against public bodies, such as gov, councils, quangos etc.
Hope this helps to clarify some of the points raised.
I think this has a lot to do with the announcement of the MDC proposal for N17 made by Boris. This was clearly an attempt to fob off Spurs and Lammy after the OS debacle and while welcome for the area, was of little benefit to the clubs plans.
Levy wants real investment, specifically in the NDP, not just a watered down enterprise zone. Boris showed his hand too quickly and Levy has spotted a chance to clean out his pockets by applying a little pressure. In my book, a shrewd move as Boris can't revoke the MDC - So anything he gets from his positioning is a bonus & edges to the NDP toward viability.
Quote from Spurs press release regarding the MDC
""We have been in dialogue with the Mayor's office and we welcome this announcement. We are, however, clear that this should only be considered a first step towards attracting private and public sector investment to an area which is one of the most deprived in London.
"There are still many details to be set out and clarification to be given as to what benefits this will bring for Tottenham.
"Whilst we look forward to playing our part in the MDC, we firmly believe the inclusion of greater fiscal incentives, additional to those mentioned in the announcement, is needed in order to attract and retain businesses, enable viable developments and to create employment in an area which has low land values and the highest number of job seekers in London.
This has got to be something to do with compensation. Levy is a board room bruiser and you can bet there is something to be gained from this. All those criticising Levy, particularly the guy saying he's ' ruined our season', who do you think is responsible for where we are now? Redknapp? Do me a favour.
Con - that's the point being made. Was Levy that naive? Or was he told off the record we had a chance (and thus tricked)? If so, the part about him being a shrewd hard bastard of a business man wont be ringing true.
Hence the confusion as we scramble around trying to work it all out.
Con Palmo:
I notice how it was the BBC that broke the news that Wet Sham had been successful , and they were also the first with this story. My guess is that someone at the BBC has a lot more info on this. As far as I can tell, only the BBC have reported on the unusual way this was voted on by LBN council.
Makes me wonder. The BBC have a much higher standard of journalism than most of the bloggers and tabloids that we are used to, and will usually only report a story after it is researched and confirmed. Given this standard, for the BBC to be first indicates to me that someone has inside knowledge.
SpurredoninDublin - Costs involved in moving the stadium around wouldn't be worthwhile if we need to start building underground car parks etc.
Also where would we play while this happened.
Looking at Google Maps though did see that a fair few buildings have been knocked down already to the north of the ground.
Makes me wonder when the project stopped being viable?
Still certain it's all a huge game and that we have no real idea of the rules and players. Wigan and Madrid are all I can be bothered to think about.
Spooky - lucid dream's a welcome reminder of how I came to find this blog in the first place. Entertaining and somewhere the other side of the line. Shame the OS has become a talking point again.
Rob:
Take my word for it. It is not about compensation. To get compensation, they would have have to show that they suffered a loss as a result of negligence or misconduct.
All the court can do in this case is rule on the legality of the decision making process. If the court rules it was illegal, the OPLC or Mayors office ( or both) will have to undertake the decision making process again, avoiding any repetition of the illegality.
So far their only losses are the cost of the bid, and there were about sixty other bidders who also lost money. If they were to be compensated for this, then every one who ever had a failed tender bid would get compensation.
All Hail Levy!!!!!!!!!!! Just trying to recoup some of the Millions or so it took us to make a bid when it was advertised as 'ALL BUSINESS WELCOME' for the Olympic when clearly is WASN'T.. absolute sue-job - EDMONTON HERE WE COME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m in support of Levy taking them to court. And the reason is not to necessary see the original decision being reversed, but to clear the air about West Ham commitments and obligations to the Olympic stadium. Through court’s proceeding and the ruling, the public would be able to find out exactly what went down behind the close doors, and expose all dodgy cracks the porn creeps were hoping to explore once the public’s interest turns away (which already happened).
Could people stop bashing Levy? It is like an iceberg, you only see the tip of what he does. It is a difficult job - one where your own personal reputation is a secondary. Yes there are some seemingly "different" and unexpected calls coming from Levy, but I am sure that the motives are all to bring Spurs forward. Where we are now is due to Levy. When we were bottom of the league with 2 points from 8 games - it was due to Levy, and Spurs' highest Premiership finish and appearance in the CL quarter finals is all due to Levy. You are not going to get everything right, so whatever doesn't kill us, we chalk it down as experience. So you concentrate on the positives. There is only a problem when you are struggling to find positives. I can name numerous Chairman/owners that you would rather not have - Doug Ellis, Simon Jordan, Rupert Lowe (southampton), Peter Ridsdale, Hicks/Gillett etc...
Diaz: I am not saying that it was a brilliant idea, only that I could see a way that we could utilise about three acres that was mainly car parking at the moment.
We would already have half the stadium built, and we would also need to excavate to build a new west stand. So if we create a void in the excavation, we can replace the car park. I understand the NDP is about £400 mill. Can this be anymore expensive?
During the meantime play at Wembley.
TMWNN, I think you have failed to understand that the team is no longer a club.
No. What you have failed to understand on the most fundamental of levels is that the club will be here long after you, me and the Sugars/Levys of this world.
That is, of course, unless one of the custodians of OUR club decide to sell out for financial gain and start a different club under the same name in somewhere like Stratford.
TMWNN:
You have both contradicted me and confirmed my original statement in the same post.
It is not a club anymore.A Club has members and that was the original ethos. Other than their promotional schemes, you will never be anymore a member of Spurs than Henry VIII. It has had no members since it became a limited company. The limited co, owns the club, and not the other way around.
You are probably right about the club being around long after we have gone, but the key point, and the point I said you failed to understand, is that the shareholders own the club and they can do anything they want with it, including moving to E15. Having contradicted me, you then agreed to this.
@Spur Dublin
It's lucky all our fans aren't like you, that would be depressing.
To suggest Spurs fans would be unable to challenge any move they did not want just shows how you bend over an take what your given.
Ultimately the decision rests on the owners of the club; but to suggest we as supporters have no power is pretty stupid.
Imagine a world full of people like you who just accept corporate power and go around telling everyone else to bend over with you : )
Im sure you get more of a kick looking at Tottenham's financial wins than you do on the pitch.
SpurredoninDublin,
I understand that our club is owned by investment bankers, and with apathetic fans who mostly live in what's become an apathetic country, can pretty much do what they will with it. That doesn't make all their actions, always right, which in turn doesn't make Levy some kind of omniscient, unquestionable Spurs God that needs his arse licked by an easily pleased bunch of sycophants.
Yidal: I don't know why you have to resort to abuse or thinking that you can read my mind based on my posts or put words in my mouth.
I have not suggested that fans cannot challenge the decision. All I have said as far as that is concerned is that at the end of the day, Levy will make a commercial decision for the benefit of ENIC, and those fans who think they own the club don't understand that their true role in this is as customers.
I am well aware that the majority are opposed to the move to E15, and Levy will know that even better than me. At the end of the day though, he will have crunched the numbers, and if he thinks that the bottom line justifies it, I have no doubt he will move to wherever he needs to in the interests of ENIC. That decision will be based on whether he believes he can bring enough of the current fan base with him.
I understand the reality, so please don't shoot the messenger. I am a customer and if I don't like the way I am being treated, I either have to accept it or take my business elsewhere. The only problem with taking my business elsewhere is that if you have supported a team for nearly fifty years, to change teams is like changing your family: impossible. That leaves one other option, which is that I can stop spending my money to the benefit of ENIC. But I can only do this because I know I am, like you, only a customer.
I can only get to a couple of games a year, and I assume you are a regular attendee, so my position is probably not as delicate as yours, and I have not yet decided what my position is over E15, but if I decide that I don't like the move, I will vote with my wallet, but that does not mean that I will want to see the team do badly.
Hearn isn't in this with us. He's objecting to ANY premiership club taking over the Olympic Stadium - a completely different issue. Maybe somebody should talke Levy to court to establish why the NLD was all great two years ago with quote 'no impact on our transfer capabilities' yet now is suddenly not viable.
TMWNN:
I have never said that ENIC are right. The fans are the lifeblood of the team, and they deserve to be listened to.
In an ideal world, loyalty is a two-way street. There are arguments for and against the move, though the arguments against seem more emotional than practical. There is nothing wrong with that because at the end of the day, supporting your team is an emotional decision. Whatever the outcome, my view is that this could have been handled better by DL.
For those of you who are interested in what I think will happen, I think we will win the review, and the OS will be awarded to Wet Sham again. My frustration with this process is that this will put the search for a new ground into abeyance for another six months.
SpurredoninDublin...
You're 100% right - Levy's interests lie wholy with ENIC. And we (as customers) hope that ENIC continue to ensure that their interests lie in the same direction as ours: a successfull Spurs squad that plays the right way: with a complete inability to defend that means we have to score lots of goals.
However as Spurs fans (customers) we do have a very democratic way of influencing ENIC - stop spending money (going to games, buying clothes / DVDs) and ENIC should match our requirements to keep a decent return on their investment in THFC.
It could be a lot worse than ENIC. For examples see Leeds, Portsmouth, West Ham...
Fair enough, SpurredoninDublin. As long as you see that 'the club' isn't just ENIC/Levy as per my original point. I just get a bit fed up with the 'Levy can do no wrong' attitude. In my mind, and I'm sure there are others, Stratford was plain wrong and has been, and still is, nothing more than a waste of the club's time and money.
I also don't believe that had ENIC/AEG won the bid that Levy would have used it as leverage to make the 'unviable' viable. The 'poker' theory if you like. No. I've no doubt whatsoever that the OS became the first choice and Levy would have shut THFC down and opened up a shiny, more corporate friendly club (under the same name) in Stratford. What was worse, was that some fans were actually upset when, effectively, the OPLC laughed at Levy/AEG's bid and handed it to a couple of sleaze bags!
The whole sorry saga has become boring and embarrassing.
DaveRay:
Don't make you wrong.
Interesting you should mention Wet Sham. Apparently, in the briefing docs given to the LBN councillors, one of the contingencies they considered is that the Sham might suffer a double relegation. In spite of this, they are still prepared to lend £40 mill to a limited company that is reportedly £100 mill in debt. And you thought the bankers were crazy...............
You're right. It's just as crazy as expecting the people to help pay for a private company's new 'office' (to keep with the 'football is business not sport' philosophy) when the majority share holder has a personal fortune of nearly £3b.
The world has gone mad!
The bankers aren't crazy. The bankers are very shrewd people who have managed to get away with loads of dosh in bankrupting the western world without any real consequences.
We're crazy for letting politicans get away with as much as they do. Example: Newham Borough Council. It's criminal the council is effectively giving 40m of tax payers money to a private company and (considering it's a 100% Labour council) they'll see zero consequences from it.
I believe that if this action, brought by Levy, results in Newham being exposed for the scum that they are and West Ham having to suffer the running track for decades to come (in an empty stadium) then it will have been worth it because our fan base will grow while they languish in the Championship and League 1.
the Brady Bunch will get their comeuppance I'm sure and I bet Hearn and Levy would love to be the ones to deliver it. the Football Authorities Rule Book clearly states that a club cant relocate to another club's patch and the west ham move to stratford does exactly that, so Orient 1, FootballAuthorities nil. Newham's 40m loan is technically a joint venture with West Ham but look past the rather unsubtle corporate veil and it's nothing but a state subsidy to the Brady Bunch. Orient/Spurs 1, Newham nil. OPLC's original criteria talked about athletics legacy but did not specify in any way that the OS needed to provide it - hence the Crystal Palace redevelopment proposal should have satisfied this criteria but the pro-West Ham brigade engaged in subtle drip-drip tactics to successfully hoodwink the public and more gullible sections of the media (and probably some of the voting committee itself) into believing that the OS was key to the athletics legacy, when in fact (as Spurs' lawyers have since highlighted) this was not the case. So I reckon that's Spurs 1, OPLC nil.
I dont believe West Ham have acted outside the rules, but Newham, OPLC and the Football Authorities have. Compensation for Orient for sure. For Spurs, maybe a rock solid ruling to make sure the Brady Bunch keep the running track and an agreement from the Govt and Boris to support the NLD with some serious subsidies/designation of N17 as an Enterprise Zone. Otherwise 10 million pound comp for the wasted millions spent on the bid + appeal costs.
The THFC/Orient lawyers will tear OPLC, Newham and the FootballAuthorities to shreads if it goes to court and in the process cause much embarressment to the Brady bunch.
TMWNN...
I don't disagree with you. I just don't think there's anything that you can do about this specific piece of reality. Unless you go out and buy a whole load of shares...
@Dublin Spur
Don't shoot the messenger - who do you think you are you then, some spokesperson for Tottenham or its fans?
Maybe you should read your patronizing posts eluding to how you seem to know best which state the obvious time and again.
Don't refer to others as customers, it's not how I view myself as a Fan. I can say Tottenham is my club without having some jumped up idiot tell me that its not in fact my club but Enic's - (stating the obvious time and again) - its always been this way for every team other than a few who have their supporters as shareholders.
I happen to own 2 shares myself - it's probably worthy of a bit of dust in a locker room.
Yidal:
There you go again putting words in my mouth.
Two things about your post: A messenger is not a spokesman and no matter how you view yourself personally, you are still only a customer. No matter how abusive you want to be, you cannot change that.
We are all fans, but we have to pay for the privilige. When you no longer have to pay to go into WHL, then you will no longer be a customer. Right now, you remind me of the man who visits a brass, and deludes himself into believing that even though he is giving her money for sex, she is really his girlfriend.
Yidal.
If only every FC in the world (or just THFC?) was built on the same model as Barcelona where the fans do own the club (or Germany where I believe every FC has to be 50% fan owned?). At the moment though that is not the case.
I, for one, am happy that we appear to have a board who:
1. do not saddle THFC with debt
2. ensure that revenue streams are high
3. ensure that the outlay on players is high
4. are trying to build the club for the future not just the now
5. are prepared to fight our corner and not let those gruby politicians and pornographers get away with the OPLC con-trick smelling of roses
ENIC are not perfect but I'm pretty sure that most Man Utd fans (as an example) would be happier to have ENIC than the money grabbing Glazers.
Im not bashing enic - I have the right to voice my opinion if I dont like something they do.
@Spurs Dublin - there you go telling me what I am. My Grandad has supported spurs for 50 years and yet never paid a cent to spurs as he sits watching from his armchair week in week out. Is he a customer of tottenham's too?
And I said - who do you think you are.......not you are a spokesperson.
Yidal: (aka customer)
If I was a spokseperson for Enic, I would try to tell you want you want to hear, rather than tell you truth, because as Jack Nicholson said, "You can't handle the truth"! What part of "You are a customer" don't you understand?
I have seen you in the past on this site, and it is clear that anybody who disagrees with you is not worth the sh!t off the bottom of your shoe.It is quite clear that the way to prove your point is to controvert the obvious. I really should not be wasting my time as I do not really deem you worthy of my efforts, but nevertheless I will try to explain it to you one last time, after which I will not be responding to you again:
That woman you visit and have sex with each week after you have paid her, is not your girlfriend, you are her customer. When she stops charging you, and gives it to her for free, you will no longer be her customer.
Regarding your Grandad, he or the person paying for the service is a customer of Sky/BBC etc, who in turn are customers of Spurs. If you buy a bottle of beer, even though you are buying it from a supermarket, you are still a customer of the brewery. If your grandad or you are not customers, then you have no right to complain.
Unlike you, I do not presume to have a great insight into the people who are on these messageboards, but I am pretty certain from your previous posts, that you have to pay to get in the ground on match days. You can call yourself whatever you want. but if you pay for it, you are still a customer.
You can call yourself a fan if you like, and you might even be able to recall a time when the local council had "Refuse Disposal Engineers", but the public still called them "Dustmen".
That was so dull and boring : )
Enjoy living in your commercial, consumer driven mind, must be fun in there.....
Dear Mr Levy Quote of the week
"I behave as I mean to. It's my club you pricks. You just work there"
Spurs fan Flav in response to an official statement that cited:
"Remember that you are ambassadors of the Club and we would request that you behave accordingly throughout the entirety of your visit"