• Tottenham face struggle to meet 2013-14 timetable
• FA councillors prove resistant to reform
Tottenham Hotspur’s hopes of delivering a £400m stadium for the 2013-14 season appear to be fading. Haringey borough’s police commander and national heritage groups have raised doubts about the club’s most recent plans.
Superintendent Chris Barclay, Haringey’s acting borough commander, has written a six-page letter to planners stressing the need for a design that keeps in mind the risk of “conflict” between rival fans. In it he underlines certain “challenges and issues” that could prevent the stadium receiving its security certification. Spurs told Digger: “We agree on the issues they have raised and we will enshrine them in the Section 106 [planning agreement].”
English Heritage and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment both have concerns over plans for the stadium’s entrance from Tottenham High Road. “We are working through these issues with English Heritage and Cabe,” a Spurs spokeswoman said, adding that revised outline designs have met a favourable reaction from both heritage groups. But with the council’s planning committee due to discuss the application in the next two months, Spurs must work fast. Even if planning consents are granted by the end of September, Tottenham must raise the finance for building the ground. A mixture of sponsorship, equity investment, land deals and debt will be used. However, in a far more favourable economic climate, it took Arsenal took 30 months to raise the cash to build the Emirates Stadium and roughly the same to construct it. On a similar timescale, it would be 2015 before the new ground opens; significant slippage to that timetable could threaten England 2018’s promise for it to be a World Cup venue.
FA reform hits rocks again
Football Association councillors will have another opportunity to reject meaningful structural reform this autumn, five years after their reactionary response to the Burns review.
A special shareholders’ meeting will be held in September when the board’s recommendation for a dilution of the independence criterion for the chairmanship will be considered. Judging by the tone of debate at last week’s annual plenary meeting of the FA council, a sufficiently large rump of councillors will be in favour of its abolition: a path that could lead to a return to the old days when one of their number is selected to the chair.
Some progressives will attempt to force a debate over the introduction of greater independence in the FA boardroom, in line with the Burns review. But even the ardent reformists believe they will be fighting a losing battle as a lack of public engagement with a shake-up that could drag the FA out of the 19th century allows the blazers to duck the issue.
League gets ratings bug
As the FA seeks to be rid of that turbulent tryst between the England manager and the commercial world that is also known as the Capello Index, the Premier League has thrown a new spotlight on the affair.
As a result of a new £10m-plus sponsorship it announced with EA Sports yesterday, the League talked of plans to beef up its own index of player performances from next season. This will involve the installation of a number of cameras at every Premier League ground to enable tracking technology from the UK-based simulation firm Venatrack, recording every step every player makes.
The timing of this announcement will surely delight the FA, still reeling as it is from the public-relations own goals Fabio Capello caused with his involvement with the player‑ratings index.
Yeovil on shaky ground
Despite the threat to Crystal Palace’s existence that flowed from the separation of the club from their ground, yet another club is joining Southend United and Plymouth Argyle down that route. Yeovil Town’s chairman, John Fry, announced last month: “The professional advice received has indicated that it will be significantly easier to attract the appropriate investment if our property assets are separated from the football club.” Digger advises Yeovil fans to seek advice of their own.
Tottenham HotspurMatt Scottguardian.co.uk
