August 14 – Tottenham Hotspur have been forced to make a further delay to the opening of their new state-of-the-art stadium until at least the end of October because of “issues with the critical safety systems”.
Having made Premier League history by failing to make a single signing during the summer transfer window, Tottenham fans have now discovered they will have to continue playing home matches at the national stadium at Wembley well into the season which started last weekend.
Spurs had been due to play the first match at their new 62,000 capacity ground on September 15 with a mouth-watering contest against Liverpool. But that game as well as the fixture on October 6 against Cardiff plus an NFL match between Seattle Seahawks and Oakland Raiders on October 14 have been moved to Wembley.
All three fixtures had been due to take place at the new stadium, adjacent to the old one, but now it is not even certain that the game against defending champions Manchester City on October 28 can be held at the new ground, with a revised timetable likely to be published.
Spurs used Wembley for the whole of last season whilst construction work on the new ground was being completed and club chairman Daniel Levy has apologised to the fans for the latest delay, with thousands of season ticket holders affected.
“We know this will be disappointing for all our season tickets holders, premium members and our fans worldwide,” said Levy.
A club statement explained that two test events would need to be held before the stadium could be used for a match. “Recent testing and commissioning has now shown issues with the critical safety systems.”
“The delays created by these difficulties mean that we can no longer hold the necessary test events. These will need to be rescheduled to take place ahead of any first official match at the new stadium in order to achieve the safety licence.”
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