Khan urges non-Spurs Londoners to back West Ham to protect taxpayer funds

With two games of the season remaining, the Premier League relegation scrap has narrowed to a two-way fight between Tottenham and West Ham. Sir Sadiq Khan has publicly urged local supporters of Arsenal, Chelsea and any London team other than Tottenham Hotspur to throw their weight behind the Hammers.

Tottenham face a potentially severe financial hit if relegated, with the cost to their owners said to be able to exceed $300 million. Khan, however, focused on the impact a West Ham demotion would have on the public purse.

“What I’d say to Londoners who don’t support Spurs is you should probably be cheering on West Ham,” the mayor, who was convinced to support Liverpool after being subjected to racist abuse by fans of multiple capital clubs during his youth, told The Standard.

Khan highlighted the 2016 rental agreement for the London Stadium, arranged during the mayoralty of Boris Johnson. “The previous mayor, Boris Johnson, did the worst deal that can be imaginable,” Khan explained when referring to the agreement struck between West Ham and the government to rent out the London Stadium in 2016.

He warned that the terms leave the Greater London Authority exposed. “As far as West Ham are concerned, [it’s] a deal of the century where he basically gave them rent free, this amazing stadium for 100 years. Now if West Ham are relegated, we, the taxpayers, we City Hall, could lose up to £2.5 million a year.

“So what I say to Londoners who don’t support Spurs is you should probably be cheering on West Ham, because the taxpayer will lose out if West Ham go down.”

The stadium, originally opened for the 2012 Olympic Games and owned by the Greater London Authority, is rented by West Ham for £4.4 million per year. According to Labour assembly member Bassam Mahfouz, that rent would halve should the club drop into the Championship, removing about £2.2 million from GLA revenue. The second tier also requires 23 home fixtures compared to 19 in the Premier League, increasing matchday costs such as stewarding and other operational expenditure for the authority.