Brady ready for re-match

Karren Brady insists that West Ham's board are looking forward to a second round of bidding for the Olympic Stadium.

United's vice-chair, putting on a brave face in the wake of yesterday's news that the club's plans to move to Stratford had suffered a knockout blow insisted that the Hammers remain the only football club able to fulfil the criteria required for a potential tenant - whilst welcoming the decision to re-stage the bidding process.

"The uncertainty over the future of the Olympic Stadium, with the prospect of months and even years of continued legal wrangling, has been taken away," she said in a column for the Sun. "The best way to move forward is this new, streamlined process that will shift the focus from the courtroom to the playing field.

"We are the ones who understand the area and its proud people. There is no doubt our legacy plan is the right one. We are committed to the borough of Newham."

Brady then added what could be perceived as a dig at Tottenham Chairman Daniel Levy's plans to move Tottenham from Haringey to Newham, stating that, "We will never turn our back on our history and heritage. We embrace it and recognise we must make sure the stadium works for our fans first and foremost."

Regardless of who eventually wins the rights to call the Olympic Stadium 'home' after 2014, the whole shambolic affair is estimated to have cost the UK taxpayer some £95million.

Today's Guardian claims that the cost of converting the stadium into one fit for football once the Olympic Games has concluded will now come from the Government's own budget, rather than be funded by the West Ham/Newham Council partnership.

* Read Karren Brady's column for the Sun here.