Tweets from the High Court
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 12:34PM Confusion and conspiracy still dominates Spurs and the High Court. The suggestion has been that we would drop the legal fight off the back of a promise (you would assume/guess/hope) from Boris Johnson to support Tottenham and the NDP, with Boris himself alluding to this, stating that it was 'very likely' we'd drop the case. A caveat best included here to highlight that plenty of reading between the lines is necessary.
The BBC firstly reported we'd be letting it go then updated their story to say it was still going ahead. Hence the confusion. The conspiracy part remains why Daniel Levy wishes to persist with it. Perhaps because we do in fact have a case? Or that the chairman wants to get money back spent on the premise that we were invited to bid in the first place only to then find ourselves nothing more than a chess piece. Or maybe the OS and this entire process is a chess piece Levy continues to move around the board, brining us back to the question of public funding.
Considering recent events in N17 and the state of the place post-riots, there is government pressure to act regardless.
Follow Don Roan on Twitter (@danroan) for updates from the court room. Below, the ones he's sent thus far.
Off to the High Court later for latest round of Spurs' legal fight over the Olympic Stadium - or am I? @BBCLdnOlympics
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14641254
On way to High Court as Spurs appeal against rejection of application for judicial review into decision to give 2012 stadium to West Ham...
..but could be end of road for Spurs if appeal rejected or their lawyers advise abandonment- If case heard will start at 10.30 - updates here
Spurs' QC Dinah Rose arrives at High Court. Suggests club's judicial review appeal into Olympic Stadium decision will go ahead at 10.30
Latest round of Spurs' & Orient's High Court fight v decision to award Olympic stadium to West Ham goes ahead despite last - minute talks
OPLC Ch Exec Andrew Altman in High Court to hear argument of Spurs QC Dinah Rose as club bids for judicial review into 2012 stadium decision
Spurs QC Dinah Rose says Newham loan to West Ham for Oly Stadium was a "distortion of competition" & decision in favour of WHam "unlawful"
So the Mayor says it looks 'very likely' that Spurs will drop legal challenge re stadium decision - it's going ahead right now in Court 2!
Spurs QC arguing that the £40m loan Newham granted WestHam for stadium wouldn't have been available via private bank & was thus "state-aid"
Spurs are effectively arguing that the Newham loan to West Ham constituted state-aid, & was therefore illegal under EU law
Interesting developments in High Court. Judge says Spurs' case is "arguable" (ie has some merit) and refers to "confusion" in Newham case
Adam Lewis QC for Leyton Orient (also seeking judicial review) say PL's decision to permit WH to leave Upton Park compromised by relegation
Judge asks Leyton Orient's QC what club's gate is and what league they play in. Justice Collins clearly not a regular at Brisbane Road
Despite their court hearing appearing to go well, Spurs talks with Mayor re agreement for them to drop legal fight in return for help on ...
...move to Northumberland Park stadium are progressing well - announcement unlikely today but possible.
Judge stresses if he allows judicial review "doesn't mean the case will succeed". Appears to be gearing up to find in favour of Spurs/Orient
To be clear best Spurs can hope for today is that the stadium decision subject to full hearing in future. Would mean uncertainty continuing
2012 stadium judicial review hearing rumbles on. OPLC's counsel Richard Gordon QC on his feet - says Spurs case is "baseless".
Regardless of result of hearing, today has done little for reputation of WestHam/Newham partnership - key to making 2012 stadium viable...
...and if Spurs/Orient do win it casts doubt on London's chance of winning right to host '17 World Athletics Champs, lots at stake in Court2
Breaking: Judge grants permission for Spurs/Orient application for judicial review of decision to give Olympic stadium to West Ham
Reader Comments (29)
Here we go again...
I would be much happier if we were taking Chelsea to the high court.
I said on this column several months ago, that I thought the issue of the £40 mill loan was possibly illegal. If that is the case, it would not stop the stadium being re-awarded to Wet Sham, but it would be nice to see that the Smutty Boys were going to have to risk their own money.
Lammy: New White Hart Lane more likely than ever now. Good news for Spurs fans and Tottenham residents.
Before my rant, what follows is a personal point, not a political one.
I wouldnt take notice of any 'promises' from Boris, not any of his 'confidence' that Spurs will stay in Tottenham. He promises everything to everyone and delivers absolutely nothing. One farcical example (of thousands) came from down my way. For years people have complained about Kingston and Surbiton stations being in zone 6, given that they are 10 miles from central London and therefore much closer than almost all zone 5 stations and many zone 4s. A petty local point of interest only really to commuters who feel they pay a couple of hundred quid too much a year. Of course Boris picked up on this during the election and 'promised' to 'force TFL and the rail providers' to rezone these stations. Many pointed out that actually he didnt have the powers to do this, but he was insistent. He'd made a promise and would keep it. 3 years later, not a dickie bird. Apparently he hasnt even raised the topic. As I said, petty local issue but there are loads of others. He promised not to increase bus fares, he promised various hospital wings wouldnt be shut, he promised to 'fix the underground'. Now he is even promising to end roadworks! So forgive me, but I wont get too excited when, in the next few days, he starts 'promising' to allocate money to the NPD, and probably 'guarantees' a new tube at Northumberland Park. He's a fking bullshitter. Its reallty no surprise to see Spurs ploughing on with the judicial review. What Boris / mayor's office said this morning was meaningless guff.
Where is the Lammy link Spooky please.
The quote is from Twitter.
I'm waiting for the next Dan Roan comment as its still not clear what is going on in terms of the case. I'm guessing Levy is looking to play it out to see if he can gain even more leverage and assurances. In the mean time, outside of the court room - Mayor of London/Lammy - they all appear to be very positive about it. Suggesting...Levy wins.
Great Stuff. Thanks Spooks
I'm also following the BBC tweets and every other morsal i can find. BBC London were all over it last night - then again if the mayor sneezes it gets top billing with them. I read Boris only offered 8.5m out of his emergency clean up fund of 20m. 8.5m thanks but we need about 10 times that before we can start talking.
I also thought the state aid point was always going to be a game changer and apparently the judge said it gave THFC an "arguable" case. Would be lovely to see DS/DG have to refinance without Newham's help. Orient also making submissions, I persume they'll go with the FA breaking its own rules about relocating one club in another's backyard and seek 5m in compo or thereabouts.
The riots may help us get a bit more govt support for the NLD - I'd be happy with govt paying for a new underground station and dropping the daft heritage objections. Plus 25m cash maybe for our troubles over the OS. Then maybe Levy will feel ready to press the green button. COYS!
I've added Dan's latest tweets to the main article.
Still looking likely we're going to come out on top.
I want us to suceed. I want it to go to judicial review. Not because I want us to move to Stratford, per se, but that the whole process was unfair.
If it does go to JR, then what of the decision by the previous judge who found no case for JR and advised caution in appealing....was he being influenced by higher powers.
If JR does result, regardless of the outcome, it will look very very messy and this gives much more strength to our arm re: public contributions for N17 regeneration. We can make all the mess go away if the mayor/govt dig deep, to the tune of at least £40m
did we even raise the "illegal state aid" point at the previous hearnig? i dont recall we did (Spooky pls correct me if im wrong). Assuming we didn't, it's brilliant tactics from THFC's lawyers to drag it out even more and give west ham, OPLC, boris etc more headaches = more leverage for govt support for NDP.
btw i said NLD in my earlier post, I meant NDP.
and Orient havent hit them with the FA rulebook point yet so that looks like more tactics.
im loving this
Breaking: Judge grants permission for Spurs/Orient application for judicial review of decision to give Olympic stadium to West Ham
Can't wait for Brady's diary.
f***ing love it!!!
Another interesting tweet was one that suggested we were offered £8m either late last night/first thing this morning as a sweetener to drop the case.
Would £8m even give us an improved White Hart Lane station?
Positioning once again. If we can prove that our 'invitation to bid' was flawed in some way, we could well at least recoup some costs of bidding, not directly of course as that would amount to recognition of the whole facade of the process.
At least we're in a strong position to be getting some form of state assistance for transport and regeneration, lets face it, the place need investment towards it on a number of levels.
I am beginning to think that the whole bidding process was a sham from start to finish.
One possible outcome is that we might still withdraw our bid, the judge rules Orient win their case regarding breach of FA rules. So regardless, Wet Sham still can't move.
Love it.
I am confused, Dublin, what do you mean by 'am begining to'? Is that a dialect thing?
It's not that I want spurs at the OS, or Hammers for that matter. I just don't want my taxes propping up the immoral gold & sullivan and that hermaphrodite (allegedly) brady. Considering their net worth, the loan should be withdrawn completely if they still are awarded the stadium. And then they should be forced to pay back our bidding costs, whilst boris drops his trousers for us on the NDP.
I could live with that outcome, just not the process or the soundbites needed to get there.
@tricky.
Don't quite understand your first sentence. My dialect is Hackney, or more specifically Dalston. Also not too sure why you did not include the "I" in "I am beginning to".
Anyway, to clarify, I initially thought there was a genuine selection process, after all, you can't just give away an asset like the OS on a whim. However, the more this has gone on, the more I begin to think West Ham were always going to get it, and the bidding process was designed to make it look legitimate.
Regarding your taxes, unless you are resident in LB Newham, it does not affect you, as it is the charge payers of that borough who are guaranteeing the loan and not the gov.
As for the conduct of the Brady Bunch, there seems to have been a convention amongst board rooms, that in football, "dog does not eat dog". Unfortunately, that bitch and those two mongrels seem not to be aware of this. I think Wet Sham fans should consider that if they had spent a little more effort on running their own club, and a little less disparaging us, they might still be in the PL.
Wouldn't Boris giving us money be the same as Newham lending the Hammers money, or worse if it wasn't a loan?
@ Davek.
The difference between the two was the West Ham loan was from a public body and was only available to one party thus, a state body was effectively subsidising one business to compete against an unsubsidised business. If Newham had offered both teams this facility, it would have been legal. It becomes even more serious, if the Wet Sham deal is contingent on getting the loan.
The money that is being talked about from the GLA, is money that would also be offered to Wet Sham if they were in a similar position to us regarding the development of Upton Park.
This is the latest babbling coming out of the mouth of Redknapp;
The Spurs boss has praised Modric's attitude throughout the saga, but admits it may be hard to keep the player's spirits up for the rest of the campaign if his possible move to Stamford Bridge fails to materialise.
"I was chatting with [Spurs coach] Joe Jordan about it and he said to me that Luka is going to find it difficult,'' Redknapp said. "He said he'll be sitting there thinking every week that he could be winning the Champions League or win the Premier League and earning £100,000 more every week.
"That's the chance you have to take. We can all say he'll be all right, but nobody knows what's in his head. We don't know how he's going to feel but he's here and he has to get on with it now. He has to get on with it and be the great player he is.''
How that man is still in charge of Tottenham, after that bilge, I will never know. Levy should sack him for GROSS MISCONDUCT.
The above article appeared in this ESPN link;
http://www.espn.co.uk/football/sport/story/107612.html?CMP=OTC-RSS
Just when you thought Levy and Harry were on the same page...
Anyway, bad night for West Ham -
West Ham 1 - Aldershot 2
Where's Adebayor and Diarra on the OS?
Get cracking Spurs. The sooner they join the lads the better they will settle when they start playing. It is not as if it is June or anything when a few days don't matter. Got to give them as much chance of success as possible and once the season has started you got to be chop chop.
dublin, clearly something got lost in translation, the irony in only 'beginning to think' that the whole is a farce, when clearly it was from day one.
After all just look at who was involved, it had the air of inevitability even back then.
Which is why none of this comes as a surprise now, it's just unfortuante that our club was dragged into it all, and quite so publically.
cookie, that's a re-hash from (one of a number of) old interviews. The latest one is more about 'modric needing to play' and levy 'in no uncertain terms'.
This is half the problem with the modern media, the time lag betweeen different streams means that two completely different stories come out on the same day.
And with enforced press conferences twice a week (EPL and UEFA) added to Arry's own little piece of the pie and his penchant for the odd soundbite, there's more misdirection inferred than that of Arsene Wenger hanging around secondary schools across europe.
Am still considering a self-imposed blanket ban on all news until 1st September, if I can just get today's fix, I reckon I can go cold turkey for a week.
Maybe.
Actually, maybe tomorrow.
Point Taken:
I can see the Smutty Boys being up to no good, but I can't see why the OPLC, seems to have taken part in the sham. That's the bit "I am beginning to" realise. I agree that it is a farce, but I don't understand why the OPLC behaved like this.
In addition, I posted on this blog months ago, that I thought that the loan might be illegal, and I am no Lawyer. Others also mentioned it on other blogs. It occurs to me that the Lawyers for LBN, OPLC and Wet Sham must have seen this coming, and yet nobody tried damage limitation. For example. LBN could have said,"If Spurs are the successful bidders, we will lend the £40 mill".
The loan itself wasn't illegal. It was the fact that it was only offered to one party, and then became an illegal subsidy.