Tottenham will return to Wembley at least initially
Spurs set for Wembley return after White Hart Lane safety issue
by Steve Clare
Tottnham Hotspur are set to play some more EPL home games at Wembely in season 2018/19. They played there last season while their new state of the art White Hart Lane stadium was being built. The North London club had hoped the new facility would be ready for shortly after Saturday’s home game with Fulham but in a statement posted on the club website, they announced that:
“Recent testing and commissioning has now shown issues with the critical safety systems.
“Urgent follow-up meetings with Mace and the trade contractors are now taking place. We are reviewing the situation and planned timetable to rectify and re-test, after which we shall be in a better position to outline a revised timetable.
“The delays created by these difficulties mean that we can no longer hold the necessary Test Events on 27 August and 1 September. 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.
In the meantime, therefore, our upcoming Premier League matches against Liverpool (15 September) and Cardiff City (6 October) will be switched to Wembley, as will the NFL match scheduled for 14 October.”
The NFL match between the Seattle SeaHawks and the Oakland Raiders will now take place at Wembley, a blow to Spurs’ hopes of attracting brand attention in the USA.
The NFL’s official reaction was also chronicled in the statement:
Mark Waller, NFL Executive Vice-President, International, said:
“Everyone has been so excited about the prospect of playing in the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and I know all at the Club are very disappointed, but determined to clear this final hurdle.
“We totally understand the issue. We shall continue to work with them towards making our future games at Spurs a huge success. The new stadium will be an amazing venue for the NFL and we are very excited about our long-term partnership with Tottenham Hotspur.”
As a result, EPL home games with Liverpool on September 15th and Cardiff on October 6th will be played at the England national stadium. The venue for the crunch match with Manchester City on October 28 is to yet to be decided,
A second statement revealed the measures Spurs are taking to alleviate the inconvenience to disappointed fans, with measures to return some proportion of sums paid to watch games in the new stadium.
Much as Spurs fans are rightly disappointed, it would have been highly irresponsible (and probably illegal) to risk the safety of supporters merely to avoid a PR nightmare.
