The head of world athletics has warned that Britain will be guilty of a “big lie” and an act of “betrayal” if it breaks its promise to provide a sustainable athletics legacy in the Olympic Stadium by allowing Tottenham to tear up the running track.
In a strongly worded attack on Tottenham’s proposal, Lamine Diack, the president of the International Association of Athletics Federations and a member of the International Olympic Committee, said the legacy promise of London 2012 was one of the key reasons why the city was chosen to host the Olympics.
He also branded the north London club’s idea of demolishing the stadium, which has cost £500 million of public money, as an “outrageous proposition” in the current economic climate.
Instead, he has urged the Olympic Park Legacy Company to choose the West Ham option, which includes a running track, when its board meets in a week’s time decide on the preferred bidder for the Stratford venue. The decision would still be subject to due diligence and requires ratification by the Government and the Mayor of London.
“Let us keep London’s promise alive and leave an athletics legacy at the venue with a top football club as a valued partner,” he said.
Diack’s intervention, timed deliberately ahead of Friday’s deadline for the submission of tenders for the stadium, is the strongest yet by a senior international sports figure and reveals the scale of the controversy that lies in store should Tottenham’s plan be favoured ahead of West Ham’s
Tottenham want to replace the stadium with a football-only venue and, to honour the commitment of an athletics legacy, propose to fund the redevelopment of Crystal Palace athletics stadium.
Last week the IOC president, Jacques Rogge, said that although he would prefer the running track to be retained in Stratford, the decision was purely a matter for the British authorities.
But Senegal-born Diack, who has ruled world athletics since 1999, has chosen not to be so coy, issuing a statement on Thursday night that made plain his outrage at the prospect of London reneging on its promise to leave an athletics legacy in the stadium.
In an interview with the BBC, he also warned that Britain’s international credibility would be seriously undermined if the stadium was bulldozed. “You can consider that you are dead, you are finished,” he said.
The London 2012 bid team made its legacy promise at the IOC Session in Singapore in 2005, which was enough to persuade Diack to switched his vote from Paris in the secret ballot. London defeated Paris in the final round by just four votes.
In his statement, Diack said: “The crux of the stadium debate for the IAAF focuses on the commitment given by the London bid committee in Singapore in 2005 to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has many members from the sport of athletics, to retain a sustainable athletics legacy after the London Games.
“This promise was not a footnote of London’s bid: it was a core policy of their presentation to convince the Olympic family of their exciting, viable legacy plans.
“It offered a vision of year-round health and fitness opportunities for the local community and a venue to stage national and major international athletics competitions ranging from meetings like the Samsung Diamond League to Area and World Championships.
“There is no doubt that this commitment played its part in the UK winning the right to host the 2012 Games. It was also seen by many as a long overdue recompense for the 2001 decision to scrap a £100 million stadium at Picketts Lock, London, which, despite written assurances from the UK Government, led to the subsequent withdrawal of the UK from hosting the 2005 World Athletics Championships.”
Diack also dismissed Tottenham’s claims that football and athletics were incompatible in the same stadium because football fans would be too far from the pitch.
He said: “While concerns have been raised about sightlines for football, we should recall that football has often shared with other sports and not just outside the UK.
“The old Wembley Stadium had a track around the pitch which was not only used for athletics but for speedway and greyhound racing. In the history of the World Cup and Uefa European Championships and Cups, most matches have been played in multi-purpose arenas. Five out of the last six Champions League finals have been held in stadiums with tracks.”
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