By David Gold
October 17 – Tottenham Hotspur’s judicial review against the decision to award the Olympic Stadium to West Ham United after London 2012 will not be taking place tomorrow as planned after the Premier League club withdrew.
The dropping of the judicial review follows last week’s decision that the venue would remain in public ownership rather than be handed over to the Championship club after London 2012.
Tottenham and Leyton Orient had appealed against the decision to award West Ham the stadium, claiming that a £40 million ($62.5million/€45.8 million) deal between Newham Council and the East London club contravened European rules on state aid.
Tottenham confirmed to insideworldfootball that they would no longer be going ahead with the legal action.
Orient are hoping to recover legal fees incurred from the judicial appeal, but it is understood that Tottenham and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) are not following that path and will each meet their own costs.
A spokesman for the DCMS confirmed that the hearing would no longer be taking place.
“We have come to an agreement with Tottenham Hotspur, where all parties will bear their own legal costs,” he told insideworldfootball.
Following last week’s developments, the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) launched a new tender process to find a tenant for the venue, which West Ham have expressed interest in taking on.
Meanwhile, Tottenham remain locked in talks with London Mayor Boris Johnson over the £17 million ($26 million/€20 million) package offered to the Premier League side to build a new stadium.
Johnson had given Tottenham a three week deadline to accept the funding, which was due to expire this week, but there is still hope that an agreement will be reached soon, with the decision on London’s bid to host the World Athletics Championships due on November 11.
They are hoping to beat competition from Doha, and their bid was boosted last week by the announcement that the stadium would remain in public hands, reinforcing guarantees made to the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) that the running track would be kept in place after next year’s Olympic Games.
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