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O what a tangled web we weave, when we first practise to deceive!
So tangled, in fact, that most attribute the quotation to Shakespeare when actually it was penned by Sir Walter Scott.
I make the point not to boast any great literary leaning but because had sports politics been on the agenda when it was written back in the 19th century then never would it have been more aptly described.
And talking of tangled webs and deception brings to mind the future 2012 Olympic Stadium and the heated game of political football now being played over it, and eventually on it.
It is all kicking off big time as West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur go head to head in the fight to inherit it once the Olympic flame has been extinguished.
Some fight, too, with sporting bigwigs, athletes, politicians, Newham Council and even Spurs fans themselves lining up in unison to oppose what local club West Ham’s vice-chairman Karren Brady has called a “smash and grab” raid by Tottenham to demolish the £500 million, 85,000-seater stadium and build a 60,000-capacity football-only facility – thereby leaving those who bid for the Games red-faced with embarrassment at seeing the Olympic legacy they promised cynically betrayed.
West Ham, happy to retain the track and share the stadium with athletics, are becoming increasingly concerned that the Tottenham bid – backed by US partners AEG who own and operate the O2 – may find favour with the Olympic Legacy Board, due to announce the decision in March, as it offers a better financial deal. It is likely to become the most vexed sporting topic of 2011.
With apparently only the Tottenham board themselves wanting such a contentious move from White Hart Lane to Stratford, theirs is hardly a cause celebre, which is where that tangled web comes in.
Webs are spun, and none are better at it than Mike Lee, arguably the most consummate spinner since Shane Warne.
Yes, how ironic that the former West Ham director who, as the 2012 bid team’s communications chief was instrumental in persuading the International Olympic Committee (IOC), hand on heart, that London’s Olympic stadium would have an athletics legacy, has now been hired to try and convince us that it doesn’t actually need one. Tangled web indeed.
What the West Ham case needs is an equally powerful voice – one within earshot of not only the decision-makers, but the political heavies.
Enter Alan Pascoe MBE (pictured), winner of Olympic silver and European and Commonwealth Games gold medals, who has risen from council house schoolboy, hard-up hurdler and one-time rebellious shop steward of athletics in the seventies, to Britain’s most successful sports marketeer as head of Fast Track.
He is calling for Prime Minister David Cameron to intervene for the sake of the future of sport in this country.
This is what he had to say when we met this week: “It is a disgrace that this situation is even being considered.
“If you drew up a list on the benefits of the Tottenham bid, the only thing in the plus column would be saving £100 million for the money men at Spurs, against, on the other side, a multi-sports stadium that is there with all the facilities for all the young people and the community of East London.
“Spending half a billion pounds on building a stadium for 12 months, then knocking it down, would make us a laughing stock in the world of sport.
“It would be internationally embarrassing not to have a stadium capable of staging a major athletics championships in London.
“The commitment that was made – and I was part of it as bid vice-chairman – brilliantly fronted by Seb (Lord Coe) and supported by all of the team in Singapore, some of whom are in the Tottenham camp now, was that we would have an Olympic stadium with a proper legacy.
“Bear in mind we took kids to Singapore in place of directors of the bid to show our commitment to this. If we now allow the stadium to be knocked down I do not think we would have any credibility in being able to bid for anything significant in the future without people saying: ‘But you don’t keep your word.’
“I think David Cameron has got to step in and stop this happening. If it was just about money then we shouldn’t have bid for the Games in the first place, but it is actually about a huge investment in the east end of London and the infrastructure of a sport in this country and the entire credibility of sport here, especially when people are realising that sport is at the heart and soul of every nation.
“Our business (Fast Track) is about marketing to people’s passions and how more passionate can it be than when the Games come next year.
“The Olympics are going to change people’s habits, with more people getting involved in activity as a result. Underlying all of that, we will lose this iconic inspirational opportunity not just for the kids, but even for those people who won’t get tickets for the Games but will just want to come and visit it afterwards.
“Now if this Tottenham bid goes ahead, what they’ll see initially is a pile of rubble. It’s not, as I have read, one or two people saying it’s about tearing up the track. It’s about knocking down the whole stadium and to me we are just heading for a national embarrassment.
“People won’t want to come and see a pile of rubble or just another football stadium – we’ve got loads of those, some great ones in London.
“There is no doubt the Tottenham bid is a serious one and they are paying a lot of money to put themselves in pole position purely because it is a better deal financially for that piece of land. It shouldn’t be about finance, it should be about what we are committed to for the benefit of sport and the east of London.
“Nine years ago we were lamenting the fact that we’d won the world athletics championships and then had to give it back as we wouldn’t have a stadium because of the Pickett’s Lock fiasco. The Prime Minister (Tony Blair) had actually committed us to the championships in writing. I found it hard to believe then that sport could be stabbed in the back so cold-bloodedly. Now here we are again.”
But what of Tottenham’s offer to tart up Crystal Palace and thus provide London with a possible world-class athletics arena?
“That’s a totally different discussion. Yes, a renovation of the Palace, with which I have had many happy associations, would be good for British sport, but what we are talking about here is the iconic Olympic stadium being reduced to rubble having made a commitment to the world of sport that we would use that stadium to create a legacy.
“If they are going to rebuild Crystal Palace, OK, it’s equally ludicrous, but why don’t Spurs go down there? The Spurs fans don’t want to move to Newham and the local community and local businesses and shopkeepers say they will be devastated.
“I feel sorry for Seb. Given the position he is in he has made it as clear as possible that he favours the West Ham bid. Where I think others have been slow is in not recognising that he is our foremost sports politician and that he was at the forefront of the most successful and creditable bid that this country has ever made, and possibly will ever make if you judge what has happened subsequently.
“People should be saying: ‘We just can’t allow this to happen to the people who led the bid, to the commitment we made and to our foremost sports politician, someone who does have total credibility worldwide.'”
Karren Brady (pictured) has described Tottenham’s current romancing of David Beckham as ‘a cynical ploy’ to boost their bid.
Says Pascoe: “If this is the case, I would hope that David, as someone who has benefited from the sporting infrastructure of this country and was part of our bid team in Singapore, won’t get involved.”
And what of Sir Keith Mills, who is Coe’s vice-chair at LOGOC and is now a Tottenham director.
“Keith is obviously in an invidious position but he is an honourable man, a terrific guy.”
And Mike Lee?
“Mike the ultimate pro and a hired gun. But I find it slightly strange that he is now lining up against Seb when he was the man spinning for him in the 2012 bid. But no amount of spin can get away from the fact that this is about the money men of Spurs against the kids of this country.
“Fortunately we are seeing a groundswell of opinion building in opposition to the Spurs bid, not least from the athletes themselves – people like Denise Lewis, Kelly Holmes and Daley Thompson, and also through the fans’ websites at Spurs.
“We must also hope that those leader writers who came down heavily on the government’s initial plans to stop money going into school sports, and got this flipped, will take the same stance.
“No doubt Cameron will know what is happening and will see what is being written about it and hopefully take similar action to that he did over the school sports funding.
“At a time when we are increasingly looking to bid for big events and have just had such a disappointing attempt at getting the World Cup and FIFA’s credibility has been called into question, are we going to go back on our commitments and our policies?
“Something that was absolutely central to us getting the Games and fundamental in changing people’s minds when the IOC voted in that room?
“If it comes about that we renege on this when we bid for major events, in future why should people believe a word we say.
“On a personal basis, I intend to ensure that everybody who needs to be is made aware just how significant this could be to the future of sport in this country. Our Olympic Stadium is surely worth more than just 40 days football a year.”
David Hemery once said of the athlete Pascoe, now 63: “Alan’s a real striver. He never gives up.” Now that he’s in the striving seat again, that’s something of which Tottenham should beware as tangled webs are spun and pending deceptions are practised.
Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.