25 Feb 2010Athlete blasts West Ham United stadium plan

Football Clubs News | Football Technology and Stadia

Kelly Sotherton has become the latest figure to speak out against West Ham United's plan to move to the Olympic Stadium.

Speaking to BBC Radio Five Live, the Olympic heptathlete branded the English Premier League club's proposed relocation to the site in east London "out of order".

Echoing recent comments from Olympics minister Tessa Jowell, Sotherton insisted that the Stratford stadium should be maintained as a top-class athletics venue after the Games in 2012.

"The legacy should be athletics. It's out of order that football think they can just come and have it," she commented.

"We don't have a national athletics stadium and we need one."

Earlier this week, former London mayor Ken Livingstone suggested that the Hammers' planned move could face major legal obstacles.

He told the BBC that a "legally binding contract" exists between the mayor of London and the International Olympic Committee over the stadium's continued use as an athletics venue after the Games.

Written by Paul Roberts

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