Exclusive: Chairman Warner denies UK Athletics "refusing to engage" with Tottenham

By Mike Rowbottom

January 14 – Ed Warner (pictured), chairman of UK Athletics, has explicitly denied the suggestion made this week by those handling Tottenham’s bid to redevelop the 2012 Olympic Stadium that his organisation has refused to engage with them on their plans for an athletics legacy elsewhere.

Warner told insideworldfootball he had a one-to-one meeting with Sir Keith Mills, the former chief executive of the London 2012 bid committee who now sits on the Spurs Board, at which he was promised access to their legacy proposals, but has not subsequently been offered any access to them.

“Mike Lee [the spin doctor hired by Tottenham to run their stadium campaign] has been telling journalists that we have refused to engage with Spurs,” Warner said.

“I had a one-to-one meeting with Keith Mills at 9am on Friday, December 17, at his offices in St James Street, at which I believe I was promised we could start dealing with them on their legacy proposals, and that I would get a sight of their proposals.

“Neither of those things has happened.”

Warner was reacting to recent statements in the press about Tottenham’s plans to knock down the Olympic Stadium after the Games and redevelop the site as a 60,000-seater football stadium if their bid is chosen above West Ham’s plan – which will incorporate an athletics track – by the Olympic Park Legacy Company on January 28.

“The promise of an Olympic legacy, and an athletics legacy, was at the heart of the London bid for the 2012 Games,” said Warner.

“In that context, what Spurs are planning to do in knocking down the entire Olympic stadium and replacing it with a dedicated football stadium is almost unthinkable.

“This bid can only be about money.

“Spurs are saying that moving to Stratford rather than developing their ground at White Hart Lane would save them between £100 million ($159 million) and £200 million ($319 million).

“If you invested that money in the markets it would make you perhaps £3 million ($5 million) a year, which is not enough to buy David Beckham’s big toe.

“I am also extremely frustrated that the only information I have about Spurs’ plans for an athletics legacy is from what I read in the press.

“Despite repeated requests from both UK Athletics and the Olympic Park Legacy Company, that remains the situation.

“If Spurs were taking that commitment seriously you would have expected them to have come out with a coherent plan by now.

“I read that they plan to financially support five elite athletes.

“I think most people will see right through that as being a bit of jam to make their plan more palatable.

“They are transparently trying to sprinkle a little stardust and grab a few headlines.

“We want the Olympic stadium to retain a track which can be used by the local club, Newham and Essex Beagles, and by schools, universities and athletes of all ages.

“We want to be able to hold the World Athletics Championships there in 2017, springboarding on from the 2016 Rio Olympics.

“Athletics is not just the main Olympic sport, it is one which so many surveys conclude is most people’s second favourite sport.

“It is a sport which is divided 50-50 in terms of men and women, it goes right across the social and economic scale – it has a high proportion of ethnic minority participants.

“Spurs can try to bamboozle people with big headlines about money, but this issue is about future generations rather than politicians making short-term decisions in a time of austerity.

“Saving Spurs some money is not the basis on which politicians should make a decision.”

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