This will make your head spin
Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 6:55AM This is satire at it's very best. From West Ham site, KUMB:
Tottenham's dirty tricks exposed
Filed: Sunday, 3rd July 2011
By: Staff Writer
The full extent of the dirty tricks played by Tottenham in the 'cash-for-stadium' row have been exposed.
Today's Sunday Times revealed how the OPLC's director of corporate services was paid circa £20,000 for 'consultancy work' by West Ham - work sanctioned by the club's Olympic Director, said to be in a relationship with the aforementioned. More details on that can be seen here.
However it also reveals the depths that Tottenham were prepared to sink to in order to derail West Ham's move into the Olympic Stadium, which was ratified by the Government earlier this year.
1. Hired 'corporate intelligence' company: The Times claimed that Spurs hired the intelligence agency two days before the OPLC declared their preferred bidder to investigate the 14 members of the adjudicating panel in order to unearth any potential conflicts of interest.
2. Hired private investigators: Having struck gold, Tottenham ordered investigators to place Dionne Knight, the OPLC director at the centre of the storm under personal surveillance. This included a 'stake-out' of the single mother's home, where she lives with her 14-year-old daughter.
3. Accessed personal information: Tottenham's investigators admitted procuring sensitive documents - including personal bank statements belonging to both Knight and the West Ham employee - along with other sensitive personal information usually protected by data protection laws.
West Ham fans posting on forums across the web tonight have urged the club to immediately halt any future transfer dealings with Tottenham in response to the revelations - including any potential move for Scott Parker.
Sorry, I lied. It's not satire. Honestly, hand on heart.
West Ham's response to The Sunday Times article that revealed the 'conspiracy' can be found on their official site. They're going to sue us.
All kicking off. Again.
Reader Comments (52)
This is going to get very messy. Looking forward to the porn kings and the slapper coming out via the papers & tv attacking both the article and THFC. As usual Spurs will say very little until court. But above all these things I am waiting to see what the Govt and Mayor have to say and do as politicians cannot help but run from uncovered corruption in fear of their own misdemeanour's coming out. Sounds like a re-run of the stadium rights will be in the offing.
redknapp to leave over scandal! scott parker will refuse to join spurs! bad times for our club!
They never get any comments on that site unless they do an article about Tottenham. So why are you giving them free publicity? I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that KUMB are actually on the pay-roll at WHU or may be with a name like that perhaps they are funded indirectly via one of the owner’s publications! Of course let's not go digging there as I wouldn’t want to get sued ;)
I do hope the last bit about WHU not wanting to do business with Spurs is true as I don't want us to sign Scott Parker. He had opportunities to join us in the past but chose other options as he obviously felt sitting on a bench at Chelsea, then getting a move to a big club like Newcastle and then again swerving us to be on board the Olympic dream ticket at West Ham were all clearly for football rather than money reasons. Hence he shouldn’t be looking to compromise his football career now. Okay I’m being a bit harsh but seriously there isn’t a current West Ham player I would want so the threat to not do business is fine by me.
In seriousness - should we panic over this ??- west hams statement seems pretty bloody firm and if spurs are found to have been dirty in their investigation what could it mean for us.....have tried explaining all to my six year old and he too is worried - "dad - will they take peter crouch away"...! (hopefully i said) - and what does this mean for our proposed funding from govt for ndp - surely they cant give us dough if we are being dragged through courts by whu / olympic board etc....can someone sum up how this could play out please.....
Well, if they choose not to sell us any of their dross including the overpriced Parker I wont lose too much sleep. Someone else can pay him 70k per week to spend half the season out injured.
As far as our use of 'intelligence' all I have to say is well done Levy! This is almost as good as the World Cup bid and FIFA elections, although I cant quite work out who is playing Blatter and who is Jack Warner yet. Hopefully there will be plenty more gory revelations in court to make the government realise what a mistake it was having anything to do with the joke, dishonest, money grabbing porn barons.
Oh yeah I see your point (colsey) it would have been good to have given them Keane and a few others. Doh! I take it back please West Ham don't be too hasty in severing all business ties with us.
Levy knows what he is doing. Funny that OPLC suddenly had to fire an employee who 'had nothing to do with the bidding' just as this story broke. We're only seeing the tip of the iceberg, more to come, but no surprise about manila envelopes changing hands....
Just a thought - I wonder if our lack of transfer activity is connected somehow to everything - if we want to convince the RGF etc that we dont have the cash for the NDP and/or an appeal court that we are the poor victim, how will it look if we spunk £50 million on Rossi and Llorente, etc? Much better to plead poverty/victim status/forced to sell before we buy etc until decisions are reached...
I'm sure some screen writer could strike gold with this as the source material. It now has a Grisham vs LA Confidential feel to it. A bald Tom Cruise to play Levy in "There used to be a Football League division 1 over there". Or maybe a spoof version with Mike Myers as Dr Levi.
Its a shame that you aren't running an article about the next Archibald & Crooks, as (back to the football) I think there are parallels between the current squads development and the pre cup king squad at the beginning of the 80's i.e. we had the midfield but the strikers were shit (armstrong, jones for the younger readers) With the right striking catalysts we could see silver return to the shelf ; ) & us keeping Bale, Judric et al beyond next season.
Trouble is, the saturation of player link bollocks in the media make this suggestion boring & the money has watered down the importance of the cups. fuck my old boots.
So wait... West Ham are corrupt... We try to prove it... Now we're the corrupt ones? LMFAO!
So we can't buy any of their championship players? Damn.
They have no option but to defend themselves in this manner otherwise they're admitting guilt.
This is very good news indeed. I do hope Tottenham Hotspur receive their just desserts for this despicable behaviour. I must admit to being partial to any news that casts the North London club in a dim light, but I profess to enjoying it even more when that light is bright and strong and casting a dark shadow across the club. I keep my fingers crossed that this episode leads to multiple sanctions, and that West Ham United prevail in all legal proceedings. I would most certainly welcome a jail term for the prime culprit.
i'm not paying to read a sunday times article.
spam have been caught out
this action from them proves there guilt
looks like this stadium thing will go on
but if it takes too long and spurs dont win the OS then well be 2 years down the line with no 60000 seater on the horizon
this is a big gamble for spurs
we must really need the OS badly
there really must be no other option
COYS
Ah, dirty tricks and all. In all the kerfuffle, the fact that West Ham employed in a 'consulting capacity' a director of the OPLC for the duration of the voting process, and fact that the same director was hurriedly fired just before the story broke, is strangely being overlooked. No matter, it will be brought up in court. The Spam have a long, dark road ahead of them. Should they be found to be guilty of influencing the voting process, their bid will be declared null and void and the bidding process will have to re-occur. Goverment meddling has so far steered the OPLC towards voting for the Spammers. Now, it's in the hands of the judiciary, and this move signals our intentions to fight this to the bitter end. So, should they lose, they would be shorn of their Olympic Stadium, declared illegal bidders and so barred from re-entering, and quite possibly would be fined a large amount fo money, money they can ill-afford to lose. Plus, Newham Council's government loan will also have to be revoked. So what do the porn barons have then? A groaning old Boleyn Ground, a Championship side and some very unhappy Spammer fans. Dark days ahead indeed.
Perhaps with us now applying for funding, we now have a bartering tool with the Government; in as much as you give us the funding, and we will stop your dirty corrupt secrets coming out..?
On a note about West Ham players, I agree with the above comment about Scott Parker. Time and time again he spurned his chance to play for us. So, to put it bluntly, fuck him.
What dirty tricks? Business comes first, when you're talking multiple hundreds of millions!
Go on levy!
Of course, a lot hinges on us as well. None of what KUMB so dramatically slapped across their illiterate readers is illegal per se. If the alleged 'investigators' we hired did tap the woman's phones, then that evidence becomes inadmissable. But, with all the legal minds behind the appeals process we've been mucking through, I'm sure that's been considered. Investigating her connection with West Ham? That's not illegal, that's pursing justice, which both the porn barons and their gullible claret and blue mouthbreathers steadfastly ignore.So we're on firm ground, both morally and judicially. The problem arises with the judiciary itself, and its connection with the government. The judge who so arrogantly dismissed our previous appeal didn't do so on the balance of what was right, he did it because the government needed the OS ready to move into by 2012 and nothing would be allowed to derail that timescale. He did also warn us against re-appealing, which seems preposterously presumptious of a judge to do. He has no jurisdiction on whether or not we choose to re-appeal, his only duty is examining the facts and reaching a justifiable conclusion. However, I'm considerably disheartened by the knowledge that, quite simply, the government doesn't want us in the stadium, it wants West Ham in it, because they won't knock it down, because they'll move in directly after the Olympics and because they'll keep the running track. Never mind the fact that our bid is ten times as good as their flimsy effort, the government needs to save face on what could become the biggest white elephant of our time and so they ignore logic and go for the convenient option. Hence, the judicial process won't exactly favor us. Nonetheless, I do see Levy's game, or at least, i believe I do. Levy knows the OS is gone-lost, for better or worse, to the Spammers. Never mind that they'll be bankrupt by 2014, they present the most politically apeeasing solution and so they'll get it. What Levy's trying to do is use the threat of delays to the OPLC process to gain government funding for the NDP. We've cast our die, and brought forward concrete evidence that West Ham stitched up the vote. The government won't want that to disturb their pretty plans for London 2012, and so Levy's banking on the hope that they'll offer us a compromise over funding for the NDP in exchange for us dropping the appeal. Probably.
Spam seem to be flattering themselves that we're suicidally desperate to secure Scotty Parker. Never mind the fact that he turned us down thrice, and so the only satisfying course of action to take now, when he's begging us to take him out of the Championship, is to flip him a merry bird and send him flying out of the Lane with Levy's bootmark on his arse, we really don't need him. He'd be a good addition to the squad ,but we're not exaclty going to get relegated if we don't get him. Sandro, Thudd, Modders, VdV....we're not short of midfield options. Unlike the Spammers, angry and bitter in the second tier. The simple fact remains; without the bargaining chip of Scotty Parker, the only thing they can do is wail and gnash their teeth. And we don't really need him, so their hopes are extremely tenuous at best.
So West Ham are suing us because we found out they cheated? Im not sure they can afford the court case to be honest.
As for the transfer embargo, can we have that in writing please.
@Sir Cecil- This is very good news indeed. I do hope West Ham United recieve their just desserts for this despicable behaviour(indisputably buying the OPLC vote). I must admit to being partial to any news that casts the East London club in a dim light, but I profess to enoying it even more when that light is bright and strong and casting a dark shadow across the (second-tier) club. I keep my fingers crossed that this episode leads to multiple sanctions, and that Tottenham Hotspur prevail in all legal proceedings. I would most certainly welcome a jail sentence for the prime culprit(culprits-Messrs Gold, Sullivan and dear Mrs Brady).
agreed there is not a member of their squad we would want, especially parker at this time.
there is a reference in the artcile to privacy laws and then a comments that going thro someone's bins ( ia ssume that is what they did) i can be defended if it has revealed corruption. it is not clear that spurs wanted this to come out, rather the invesitgator spoke with the journos from the times. in any event, even if nothing untoward happened it is mightily embarrassing for all concerned that such poor judgment was shown. this woman apparently revealed she was in a relationship with the guy in charge of west ham's bid but never thought to tell them she was receiving money? that is an extreme case of poor judgement. apparently spurs wrote to the olympic cttee two weeks agoing asking about this but not revelaing that they had proof of payments. was that because they did not want to reveal what they had been up to or because they wanted to give the olympic cttee a chance to dig a deeper hole. we have all heard how spurs were assured the running track was irrelevant and then that was given as a key decision to award it to west ham. spurs were understandably annoyed by that given the time and effort they put into the bid, they saw themselves as being used as pawns to give the whole process some appearance of regularity; but that is just shoddy behaviour, not really illegal. now there seem to be suggestions of new smells around the process, maybe all is just ok but one cannot deny this could get quite ugly, so sit back and enjoy the car crash. the biggest smell for me has always been around putting a running track ahead maximising the return to taxpayers, or should i say minimising the loss.
Have just read the full statement on West Ham's site. Reading between the lines, I reckon they are shitting it.
Kind regards
Sherlock
They (kumb...do you think that could be a pun on them being wankers???), don't always print the comments dpac73.... I tagged them earlier on this, but strangely the comment never made it through!
A couple of points, I notice they say "ususally" protected by the Data Protection Act: it wasn't this time?
"Edspur" on Harry Hotspur, posted a link to Ian Tomkins Linkedin profile...it seems prior to being a director at Wet Spam and convenient amore of a the OPLC Director of Corporate Services, he was the Head of Communications at .......... London Borough of Newham!
As a West Ham Supporter, its as usual a case of our club shooting itself in the foot, seems to happen at least two ro three times a year since we took on Tevez and Mascarpony. Nice to see a few balanced opinions from Spuds fans, but a shame that there are lots of mindless ones too.
Bottom line is Levy is a real nasty piece of work, he put families and businesses in Tottenham out of work when he levelled whole areas of ground in order to proceed with redevelopment of your stadium, never an apology to those people because he doesn't give a shit about them, he also cares nothing about you guys the clubs real supporters who have no interest in moving to the OS which is nowhere near Tottenham and is in fact East London.
The only thing Levy cares about is money, he would sell his grandmother for the silver in her hair, lets face it none of our clubs come out of it looking well, but to hire investigators to dig into peoples private finances well that is criminal behaviour. I hope the FA ban Levy from the game, it is not gross stupidity what he has done its illegal and immoral.
Good luck to you guys for the coming season.
Firstly West Hams bid was not the best for the tax payer but the best for conservative MP Sebastian Coe and the buffon Boris and how can you trust these two when they sold Birmingham to a gangster a fucking hair dresser. Secondly i dont want Spurs to move but you must see what this has done to our Club we are dying while vultures circle over our players because we cant generate enough money to pay wages and stay in the new rules. We have to understand if we stay at Tottenham we will have to lower our ambitions and sell our top players and bring the next batch of talent through Modric and Van out Sturridge leandro Bojan Arteta with Bale Huddlestone Lennon Walker Rose Townsend we can compete and stay healthy while the Northumberland project is started and Levey is showing the fuckers we where robbed by Chelsea and shafted three times twice the the league and by Baron drago and his creepy migdjet
Well if it means we don't sign Parker then frankly, this entire stadium debacle has been 100% worth it.
West Ham Supporter-
Well, we're miffed, simple as that. We're miffed at the revelation that the whole bidding process was a farce. We're miffed that Wet Spam supporters are now trying relentlessly to divert all guilt from their gloriously scrupulous owners to our club. We're miffed that you think we need Scott Parker so badly we're willing to drop the allegations of vote-tampering to get him. We're miffed that gleeful troglodytes like Sir Cecil come crawling all over a free-comment Spurs fansite, but Spurs supporters trying to post on KUMB are blocked. We're miffed.
Good luck to you as well.
Davspurs, West Hams bid was the only bid that fullfilled the criteria of maintaining an Olympic Legacy, it is also providing massive regeneration aswell as lots of community projects in Newham. There is a reason that the board voted 14 0 in favour of our bid over yours, because we gave them what they wanted. All Levy wants to do is save money for a short term financial gain. It is not important to play in the champions league, every club is a selling club, every club is in massive debt, although it pains me to say it, the gooners are the only ones that are doing it right. The only thing thats important really is that our clubs are sustainable and that they true to their supporters. Eventually all those teams at the top will fall of their plateau, Chelsea are on the slide, City can't sustain that kind of spending either, United will at some point lose Sir Alex, so forget about winning at all costs and enjoy the game, their used to be banter between London clubs. now it seems more like malice from many that post on all our club forums. Its a game hopefully one day the bubble will burst and we can go back to basics.
Dubaispur, noone is suggesting that what we did is wrong even the KUMB article is suggesting our guilt, I lived in between Tottenham, West Ham, Arsenal and Orient for most of my childhood and have been to all the stadiums with may mates as we support a mix of all those teams. My experience from talking to my mates is that none of them want to go to the OS they want a stadium in tottenham that has better transport links and parking. As for Scott Parker wait and see what happens if you get him good for you guys if not its not that important, with regards to mindless idiots that post on many West Ham forums ignore their comments and read the balanced ones, none of us really know whats happening and as mentioned in the above post, our bid fullfilled the criteria. I don't know and no doubt more revelations will come out, but from what I could see and what Seb Coe said prior to the bid system his and the OPLC's agenda was very obvious, if Levy wanted to win he should have listened, he had no interest in any sport other than football which was his choice and the wrong one, if I am honest none of us West Ham supporters really wanted the OS either as all our memories are tied to our Stadium.
Good luck all
The more I sit back and watch what goes on with the OS, the more I think maybe it was a ploy to make sure we secure as much help in return for securing outside funds from other bodies. The more we press on with reviews etc, the, more likely we are to get assurance of assistance.
Just what I think of course...
'Dirty Tricks' ... Isn't that the title of the movie that Karen Brady made her pornstar debut in?
This is all getting very boring and complicated. I have been standing up for Daniel Levy all through this issue, but for Christ's sake Daniel, 'to have started an investigation 'PRIOR' to the bid', what was he thinking about, certainly not getting us the striker that would have ensured CL football at WHL 2011/12.
On Friday, suddenly, there's another way of making the NDP plan viable again, an RGF Scheme Grant. Now today the Times open another can of worms. Levy will have to be careful that he doesn't upset so many people thet the 'panel' on the RGF won't be able to safely award monies to the NDP scheme. It's getting too nasty. Scott Parker now won't sign up. Wow, what a loss !!!
Mr Vexed,
Now that Levy has finally applied for public assistance, it's probable that his continued legal action is designed to mount pressure on those that might help, but let's not pretend that the OS was never Levy's end game and perhaps still is.
Leonardo,
It's an interesting and pertinent point you make about the lack of transfer activity being tied up with this NDP/OS fiasco. To the tax payer, it would look very strange indeed being asked to help out a private company who can afford to spend the cost of the S106 and more on one football player, and then pay him £70,000 a week for 4 years.
West Ham Supporter,
"The only thing thats important really is that our clubs are sustainable and that they true to their supporters."
Well said, but the problem here lies in what being 'true to their supporters' actually is. Is it moving the club to Stratford where it would be more able to compete with and beat the teams at the top to win silverware, or is it more to do with staying where it's always been; close to the club's roots and heritage, progressing more steadily from there. I'll always be in favour of the latter, but I appreciate other supporters favour the former.
I wish that London had never been chosen for the Olympics. We'd be talking about football rather than judicial reviews, stake-outs and searching in people's bins etc.
Not very sportsman like is it?
Words fail me. Just for the record I never wanted spurs to have anything to do with the OS. However as a tax payer, paying through the nose twice over (income tax and a greater London council tax payer), i object in the strongest possible terms to the huge public subsidy being given to a couple of porn barons. I'm not surprised at these latest developments. Gollivan and Newham are simply clowns completely out of their depth. They stitched up the bidding process, egged on by the administrators at the OPLC who simply wanted the lowest effort solution, regardless of the long term implications to the tax payer. It's shocking and we should thank THFC for shedding light on this (albeit in the knowledge that they do so purely in their own misplaced interests)
Let's be clear about this: most of the costs associated with the development of the Olympic park have been infrastructure related. Cleansing the land cost a fortune, as didinvestment in roads, rail, underground etc. We live in a Market economy (supposedly, though it's drifted to something akin to a soviet if this debacle is anything to go by). The smart thing to do with the whole Olympic park following the games is to sell it off to the highest bidders, regardless of
what they want to do with it. All this talk of legacy us baloney. Ok let's now let a bit of idealism enter the debate and say it should be sold to the highest bidder within the sports and leisure sphere. If uk athletics or wham can put together the highest bid on this basis that includes a track then fine. If not sell it to the party that offers more. As a tax payer I want the money back, I'm sure 95% of other tax layers agree with me.
What we have instead is a complete stitch up, with gold and Sullivan the only winners. Wham fans, whatever they say now, won't be reaping any benefits from this. Here is what will happen (and none of this is unforseeable - I'm not claiming to be a genius or Nostradamus):
1. The clowns at wham and newham won't raise the necessary finances to make the stadium investments they've committed to. Wham will start playing in a 25k stadium with no roof or facilities, and some vague commitment to develop the site in the future.
2. The fans will stop showing up after a season, complaining about lack of atmosphere, being too far from the pitch and getting wet every other week.
3. Whams new owners (gollivan having bailed out as soon as upton park was sold) will badger the state for more public funding to develop the stadium. Either the state will acquiesce, throwing good money after bad just to delay the inevitable humiliation, or wham will just walk away from the contract and go into some kind of ground share with charlton (or dagenham!). Result: the White elephant the state was so keen to avoid, massively loss making with income from a few concerts and some athletics meets. If you want to see a vision of this future, just go to Barcelona where the sane thing happened (a second tier football team with financial problems took a lease on the stadium, never bothered developing it and legged it at the first opportunity).
I will hate being proven right as it is going to be a humiliating episode for all londoners.
Paul F, consider my cap well and truly doffed. Excellent work!
paul f
i rthink you are wrong. i think it will be built and the porn kings will then sell it at a very nice profit to some new entity that pays a lot because of the increased value due to the stadium. i think you are completley right about the taxpayer, as i have said several times on this site. what will have happened is that the tax payer did not support any type of sport, rather they gave shedl oads of money to the current owners of west ham.
you are also right about the cost of the stadium, that dreadful woman was up in arms about the 500 miill stadium being ripped down when in fact the VAST amount of that was on land preparation, and the stadium that is being built is a meccano set that is intended to be taken apart; they dont even have toilets in the stadium, as plumbing is expensive if not intended to be around two minutes later. their very own plans were to reduice it a 25,000 seater.
Machiallevi has been doing an intriguing job of playing both "options" of NDP & OS against each other. The powers that be aren't going to let this mess get too out of hand. There will be an eventual payout for THFC redevelopment as our reward for eventual silence over this dodgy business.
As for West Ham, their future is going to be dependent on someone (with a lot more credibility than Gold,Sullivan & Brady) sourcing some serious overseas investment into that club and their prospective white elephant of a stadium.
A foreigner profiting out of a national stadium is therefore a real prospect and we aren't going to be refunded the tax.
Cyril, I know it's annoying for others when two people use a forum like thus for 1-1 debates, but I'm not sure I understand your point. Gollivan cant sell the OS to anyone - they won't own it. Wham will simply have a lease on the OS which will be very heavily restrictive in terms of useage. If you are saying gollivan will sell wham at a profit, I've heard these arguments before but they simply don't wash. They could only sell wham to an owner willing to take on the huge levels of debt that will have been raised to adapt the stadium. Why should wham be worth more after the stadium move than they are now, pre-move but having won the right to play in the new stadium?
The only way gollivan can make money from this is to win the right to the lease on the stadium by lying. Sell upton park, sell the best players, trouser the cash then fail to honour their commitments in their bid for the OS lease. Think this doesnt happen? Think again. It happened recently at brighton and Oxford - both Championship clubs at outset. And look at the money Gollivan took out of Birmingham. It isn't a difficult equation: (retained profits + sale price) - purchase price = 2 rich unscrupulous porn barons.
In my humble opinion the scenario I paint is happening before our very eyes. Gollivan will execute the moves laud out above, plead poverty from relegation as a mitigating factor before selling the club on to some mug who doesn't realise the true financial picture (maybe Carston Young will be out if jail and looking for a new pit to throw his daddy's money into by then).
The tax payer and Wham fans are being raped and I dont think any of us - especially us tax payers, who've seen our public money making unscrupulous individuals wealthy for decades - should stand for it. Gold and Sullivan are not fit and proper persons to be handed this kind of public subsidy and the buffoons in the OPLC, mayors office, LBN etc who are enabling this debacle should be held to account. If Levy and a few private investigators help facilitate this then more power to their elbows. Any talk of privacy in such instances isn't just spurious, it's an insult to decency.
Great news--we will not buy Scott Parker
Firstly West Ham Supporters i Davspurs never wanted to leave Tottenham and said so when the vote had not bean announced. But in defence of Levey and Spurs the Olympic was voted on one criteria the running track eng kept to appease Coe the man who promotes athletics told sky the Tootenham bid was a better legacy for athletics because he stated you cant get kids from computer games and athletics cant fill a sixty thousand stadium Crystal palace would have bean better suited. So any tax payer would smell a rat the same rat we smelt when Russia and wealthy Russian spoilt boy from Chelsea was involved with another corrupt voting crew. This fiasco has cost Spurs millions and the world Cup vote 15 million of tax payers money and the reasons Fifa want expand the games to a races country run by Mafia and athletics want a white elephant full of empty seats. You have echoed my sentiments West Ham Man corruption greed Money Sky and big egoes are ruining our great game. And if these new rules don't work then a big bang will be heard and it will be sky going bust and i will be one of the pins busting a balloon getting bigger by the ever increasing fees by cancelling my 50 odd pounds and going free by internet West Ham and Tootenham are not to blame but these are Boris Harringay the Police Hertage Coe Newham the 14 committe the Judge who charged orient and Spurs one million for exposing a council using rate payers money without a vote an cutting services with a vote the fans should stick together because West Ham have to un 50 yards before the can even touch there players and Spurs are losing stars because of an extra 30 thousand plastic uncomfortable seats we all love football stand together and we will all win fuck Sky off with Davspurs
Not one West Ham fan can deny that this process is/was flawed and something doesn't seem right. A 40m loan given at the dead of night with little time for the decision makers to consider it. Then Newham Council deny Spurs the same loan even though as a public body they are only obliged to get the best deal for the area. What's to say Spurs wouldn't have offered better repayment terms?
Then the deadline for the decision to award the stadium is extended all the while the weighting for the criteria gets changed and the OPLC work with West Ham but spurs are left in the dark. Public pressure (including Government officials) push for West Ham and Spurs (a finalist and only in it because they were encouraged to do so) lose 14-0. The vote made public before the OPLC even have a chance to meet.
During the review, the OPLC and Newham refuse to answer spurs' questions as to why they lost and spurs are strongly advised not to appeal which is unprecedented action from a clearly biased judge.
On top of everything we now find that West ham were paying a OPLC director for consulting work whilst the bid was happening.
At least West Ham fans should accept, spurs have a right to question the legality of the above points. We spent millions on our bid and the least we deserve is full and clear answers.
" West Hams bid was the only bid that fullfilled the criteria of maintaining an Olympic Legacy"
West Ham fan - which criteria are you refering to? The one before the bids were submitted whereby the criteria was heavily weighted towards the most financially viable project or the one after the bids were in and Seb Coe opened his mouth?
It's absolute fact that whilst the 5 criteria remained constant, the weighting shifting after the bids were submitted.
paul f
all i was saying was that the new stadium for them has the money lined up, albeit 35 mill from the oplc and 40 mill from newham. the stadium will boost the value of the club because it has value, whether freehold or leasehold, the value goes with w ham. and therefore if the next playbow arab or russian oligarch is looking for a place to invest for quick success then it will be very attractive as a large stadium is already in place. the only windfall is the undervalue they pay for a great stadium. i think getting it built will increase the ability to sell the place and so they will move forward quickly. they can cover overruns, they are both worth about 300mill i believe. we migh be saying the same thing, bottom line an enormous amount of value is going to them (the pronkings) from us the tax payers. of course when the oligarch in waiting is looking at options there will be some clubs that would need a new stadium and the dilemma will be, can i get w ham back into the top league more quickly than i build a stadium somewhere else.
I am more confused reading these comments, then I am when I watch University Challenge.
Don't get me wrong, they're very intersting comments, until davspurs starts bunnying.
Hasn't he heard of full-stops?
Anyway, I'm a Spurs fan from East London, so I've always been pretty confused, I suppose?
Please allow West Ham their day in the sun. If and when that take legal action against us and the Times, brilliant, great, let's have the whole thing out in the public gaze once and for all. I feel we've been conned, that in itself has caused a rift between our own support, because it effectively shelved the NPD and put the focus on the OS,which was of course never intended for football. Who said so, why the OC did of course. Everything was jogging along nicely until Boris ask's us to bid, Levy say's 'what's the point you said yourself it was never intended for football!', Ah, says Boris it is now and it'll save you 150-200 million.' Fair enough' say's DL,' But that tracks gotta go or else there's no bid forthcoming from us!'. 'Bid away Daniel', 'but West Ham are also in the frame, although their bid's absolute shite, but then again, so's their team and even their chairman said "That track's gotta go' He swore it his gold plated dildo' meanwhile in the pie and mash shop 'What are we to do about this Icelandic debt David two?' 'Dunno, David one, let's sell Parker?' "Wait, you're a genius, not just Parker, but Upton Park as well, and we've got contacts in the council who'll lend us a few bob to make it happen, that way we can get that fuck-up Seb and Co made for bugger all, and flog off Upton Park, debt cleared, Happy Day's"..." 'But I said it was unfit for football David Two' "You did, but everyone thinks you're a arse-hole, so that wont hurt"
Steve, I agree with you on the fact that West Ham seem to have broken rules and also that the whole process needs to be investigated with complete transparency so that the public can hold any guilty parties to account.
Hopefully you will agree with me that Daniel Levy has broken far more serious laws in obtaining financial and personal details through illegal means.
With regards to my comments about us fullfilling the OPLC wishlist, at no point has Seb Coe publically or otherwise said that Tottenham's bid renovating Crystal Palace fullfilled an Olympic Legacy or that your bid was the better bid, if you have ever been to Crystal Palace you would realise that his plans were not thought out and ridiculous.
Lets be honest very few supporters wants the OS, but if you look at the facts and ignore all the dirty tricks engaged by all parties.
The OS is in Newham, East London the same borough and a stones throw from West Ham, West Ham will help make the OS a multi-sport arena and leave the running track / athletic's facilities, in addition they will repay the tax payer over time the original costs of the stadium through the lease, furthermore and most importantly they have commited to a large number of community related projects which will help many of the most under privilidged people in the East End.
Tottenham's support is North London Based and in Haringey, so you would then be moving all the WHL income generated by Tottenham from Haringey to Newham, there would be even more knock on job losses in Haringey than DL has already created by levelling the ground allocated for redevelopment and more of an impact to teh tax payer through increased benefit claims, you would upset the core support of the club who don't want to move there, you would have no community related projects funded by THFC, no multi-sport venue, a token olympic legacy of renovating Crystal Palace thus upsetting people in South East London, East London and North London aswell as nearly all the general public, with just a large demolition and construction project to show for it. There are probably many more reasons aswell but you get the maeaning I hope in terms of looking at the picture as one that is not isolated just to football.
If I was not a West Ham supporter I would say exactly the same thing objectively, it makes no common sense for Tottenham to move there it is a decision based entirely on greed and with no consideration to anybody except himself. Tottenham Hotspur will hopefully be around a long time after DL comes and goes, it is short term thinking with no consideration to the supporters or the public. Tottenham Hotspur will last a lot longer than Levy and the sooner you get rid of him the more popular you will be, in the same way the sooner we get rid of Sullivan and Brady the more popular we will be.
Good luck
Lol Essexian76 haha, a pretty good summing up of things, I wish you were writing for the newspaper at leats we could all laugh about it then!! :D
A couple of things, yes it is all about positoning by Levy and the price 'to mke the issue go away'.
But what I find strange is the stance that by hiring people to gather evidence we have dne something wrong. Last time I gemmed up on making accusations against a third without evidence, it was called 'slanader' (or 'libel' if it was in print or broardcast).
As an aside, in the process of bidding (either for the transfer of an asset or for formation of contract') in general terms any representations make made which turn out to false, and the person making them knew they were false are deemed 'fraudulent representations'. So let's just see what happens to he track in the future, eh?
Tsk, tsk and if it wasn't for that pesky 'evidence' then david's one and two would have gotten away with it. Why you meddling Levy, grrrr!
Yikes Shaggy! I mean porn king David.
I say it should be decided in the Olympic ring, opening ceremony, Alan Suger Vs Karen Brady; each sporting a large wet kipper! or is there just something fishy going on here?