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West Ham United’s relegation from the Premier League to the Championship will cost London taxpayers millions with the capital losing a top flight club once again.
West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur went into Sunday’s final round of matches knowing one of them would be relegated and, despite a 3-0 win over Leeds United, it was the Hammers that will play in next year’s Championship.
But a 99-year lease deal signed by former London Mayor and Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2012 when West Ham agreed to ditch their Upton Park home for the Olympic Stadium, dubbed by current Mayor Sadiq Khan as “the worst deal imaginable”, will now cost the London taxpayer millions.
Matt Hardy has the story.
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0:00
While Tottenham has narrowly held onto
0:02
its place in the Premier League, West
0:04
Ham has been relegated to the
0:06
Championship. This is obviously grim
0:08
news for fans, but it's also creating a
0:09
bit of a financial nightmare for the
0:11
club, its players, and London taxpayers
0:14
more broadly. To get stuck into the
0:16
depths of West Ham's woes, we are joined
0:19
by our deputy sports editor, Matt Hardy.
0:21
Welcome, Matt.
0:22
>> Hello, Matt.
0:23
>> Good to see you on the podcast today.
0:26
So, first off, Matt, this would be
0:27
devastating for any club, but what is it
0:29
about the specific setup of West Ham
0:31
that makes it so particularly exposed to
0:34
this kind of relegation?
0:35
>> Well, it's really interesting.
0:36
Obviously, three teams go up, three
0:37
teams go down from England's top flight
0:39
every year.
0:40
Um and and and West Ham kind of fell at
0:42
the final hurdle. They actually won at
0:43
the weekend, but it
0:45
>> Yeah, 3-0.
0:45
>> Yeah, but it wasn't enough because Spurs
0:48
managed to to stay up. Basically, this
0:50
is going to cost all three of us a bit
0:52
of money. It's going to cost all of your
0:54
listeners money because the stadium they
0:56
use, which is the Olympic Stadium, it's
0:57
now called the London Stadium. Um the
0:59
rent they pay um goes into City Hall's
1:03
coffers, so it's basically, you know,
1:04
money, and that's going to decrease by
1:07
around, Sadiq Khan says, around 2 and
1:09
1/2 million per season. Why?
1:11
>> Why are they going to pay less rent?
1:13
>> Because the agreement that was signed in
1:15
2012 before they moved between Baroness
1:18
Karren Brady, who's now left the club,
1:19
and the then mayor of London, Boris
1:21
Johnson, had some very favorable terms
1:23
for the club. Um it basically meant that
1:25
the stadium was occupied, which is kind
1:27
of what they wanted, but it's extremely
1:28
favorable. The fans hate the stadium.
1:30
They're too far away from from the
1:31
pitch. It hasn't really gone gone well.
1:33
It's 62 and 1/2 thousand seats. Um but
1:36
the rent goes down if they get
1:38
relegated, and and obviously that
1:39
shortfall's going to come out of our
1:40
pockets as as London taxpayers.
1:42
>> Wow, so that that money really isn't
1:44
going back up again unless they go back
1:46
into the Premier League, presumably?
1:47
>> Back in the Premier League. And may I
1:49
also say it was around 4 and 1/2 million
1:52
a year, nearly 5 million, um per season
1:55
to use a bit of real estate like that. I
1:56
mean, what a deal.
1:58
>> Do we know if that's paid for the
1:59
stadium yet for building it?
2:01
>> Uh
2:02
I I I imagine I imagine no. Um there are
2:04
still losses at at the stadium, but
2:06
obviously the legacy of London 2012
2:07
would have kind of been felt through the
2:09
economy and and and spending in the last
2:11
decade.
2:11
>> And even I know that if Tottenham had
2:14
gone down instead, which was also a very
2:16
real possibility, that would have been
2:18
very embarrassing given their amazing
2:21
stadium, which I'm told is one of the
2:23
best in the world, possibly the best in
2:25
Europe. Uh it's even got a blooming
2:27
brewery under it. I mean, that's a close
2:30
shave for Tottenham cuz if they'd sort
2:32
of bombed out the Premier League, then
2:34
that would have caused quite a lot of
2:35
issues for them as well.
2:36
>> I mean, long-serving director and and
2:38
co-owner Daniel Levy left the club um in
2:41
the last 12 months. Um what a time to
2:43
have to have been relegated if that
2:44
happened. I mean, it's absolutely
2:46
devastating. It's also bad for London
2:48
football because I I was reading this
2:49
morning Arsenal, who are in the
2:51
Champions League final this weekend,
2:52
they're the only London team who are
2:54
going to have European football next
2:55
year, which means those midweek nights,
2:57
you know, going to Stamford Bridge at
2:58
Chelsea or or, you know, there there's a
3:00
chance Fulham could have got there. Um
3:02
it's it's not happening, obviously.
3:03
Palace can get there as well, but um
3:06
it's obviously just bad for all of us
3:07
cuz you guys know I like going to the
3:08
football in the in the middle of the
3:10
week.
3:10
>> You love a Tuesday night.
3:12
>> And and I should say this isn't just bad
3:13
on the taxpayer. Sam Cunningham's column
3:15
for City AM um out this morning uh leads
3:18
on the fact that all players um have
3:20
something in their contract that if they
3:21
get relegated, their wages get split in
3:23
half. So, all of those players on
3:26
hundreds of thousands of pounds a week,
3:27
not so much anymore.
3:28
>> Are West Ham going to have to start
3:29
selling players now?
3:30
>> Probably. They're going to have to find
3:32
some shortfall. Players will want to
3:33
leave. Some players will have um
3:35
stipulations in their contracts that if
3:36
they get relegated, they can go. They've
3:38
got some really good players as well who
3:39
who could get 30, 40, 50 million for the
3:41
team. Um and it comes as as as I said
3:44
earlier, Karen Brady's left the club,
3:46
Baroness Brady. Um she's widely quite
3:49
liked in the the League circle. She's a
3:51
member of the Lords. She's got, you
3:53
know, kind of influence. She was anti
3:54
the regulator.
3:55
>> She's clearly a great negotiator.
3:57
>> Great negotiator. Obviously, did a very
3:59
good job at Birmingham City before
4:00
before West Ham.
4:02
>> So, very briefly, Matt, um the FBI are
4:05
preparing for drone strikes on American
4:08
football pitches during the World Cup.
4:10
>> Insert screaming noises. Now, um yeah,
4:12
look,
4:13
it's absolutely nothing new to to look
4:15
at major tournaments in any sport and
4:17
and have security, you know, you got to
4:19
look at that's the the Munich Olympics.
4:21
I mean, Grand Nationals were called off
4:23
over IRA bombs. This happens a lot. Um
4:25
anyway, and and now you'd think that
4:28
we're kind of heading towards cyber
4:29
warfare. We had a piece recently
4:31
[clears throat] about
4:32
do you hack the football or do you hack
4:34
the broadcaster? Do you stop it going
4:35
anywhere?
4:36
>> think you can hack a football.
4:38
>> [laughter]
4:39
>> You know, do you
4:40
and and ways of
4:40
>> They've got tracking technology
4:41
>> Do you do you hack the ticketing systems
4:43
so no one can get in? So, anyway, um
4:45
we've got some comments in the paper
4:46
this morning um from some security
4:48
experts that are basically saying um the
4:51
FBI have anti-drone people in
4:53
in place for this World Cup because
4:55
there is a there is a threat that what's
4:57
going on in Iran and and just general
4:59
conflicts around the world. There's
5:00
terror cells everywhere. Could ignite
5:02
some domestic terror rather than
5:03
overseas terror.
5:04
>> Right, so this this is like Americans
5:06
who are
5:07
>> or people in in America who are
5:08
>> who've been sort of radicalized by what
5:10
they've seen.
5:10
>> Yeah, and obviously this is this is
5:11
technically nothing new, but the the the
5:13
problem now is how warfare's changing. I
5:14
mentioned um software earlier, but I was
5:16
talking to someone who said, you know,
5:18
is it beyond the realms of possibility
5:20
that somebody has a has bought a drone
5:22
completely legally and attaches
5:23
something to it and tries to get it in
5:25
stadiums. The the comments I've got this
5:27
morning kind of suggest that the FBI's
5:29
anti-drone technology does work,
5:31
obviously. They're the FBI, but there
5:33
are also other agencies, whether it's
5:34
local police, local enforcement, um
5:36
federal and state level. If they've all
5:38
got their anti-drones at one of the same
5:40
time, it might actually just counteract
5:42
each other. So, they're going to have to
5:43
be completely cooperative. It's 104
5:46
matches across Canada, America, and
5:48
>> Well, and that's what authorities that
5:50
are not necessarily going to communicate
5:51
with each other. In some cases, they're
5:53
in a bit of a diplomatic war of words.
5:54
That's state level, federal level,
5:56
Canadian government, Mexican government.
5:58
>> And and obviously, if you work down the
5:59
three countries, Canada have had some
6:00
problem problems letting people in over
6:02
visas
6:04
and immigration. America, there are
6:06
worries about ICE
6:08
and and whether people can come in who
6:10
are from [snorts] certain countries on
6:12
on various lists that the president has.
6:14
>> Well, checking people's social media.
6:16
>> Yeah, there's there's some chat about
6:17
that.
6:17
>> Mauricio's tweets about Donald Trump,
6:19
I'm sure.
6:20
>> there's some chat about
6:22
the Democratic Democratic Republic of
6:23
Congo and whether there's going to have
6:24
to be some
6:26
kind of testing to make sure that
6:27
there's no kind of Ebola threat, which
6:29
is which is, you know, unheard of,
6:31
called crazy. And Mexico, it wasn't too
6:33
long ago we had the cartel deaths in
6:35
Guadalajara, and and they're hosting
6:37
World Cup matches, too. So, really, it
6:38
is
6:38
>> And that case will be a couple of weeks'
6:40
time.
6:40
>> A couple of weeks' time. Excellent. And
6:42
we'll have all your World Cup coverage
6:43
here. Well, some World Cup coverage
6:46
here.
6:46
>> of how it works.
6:47
>> The business of the World Cup. Thank you
6:49
very much for coming in, Matt Hardy.
6:51
Um see you again very soon.
6:53
>> Thank you.
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