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The IOC Executive Director for the Olympic Games has branded West Ham United's involvement in London's post-2012 Games legacy as a success.

Christophe Dubi, speaking in the wake of heavy criticism regarding the condition of several venues used for last summer's Rio Games insisted that the Brazilian city's legacy plan would take time to reach fruition - as was the case with London's.

And praising the process that eventually resulted in West Ham becoming long-term tenants at the London Stadium - even though football was never considered as a potential use prior to the venu's construction - Dubi insisted that Rio's neglected sites will not remain in a state of disrepair for long.




"There can not be a transformation the day after the Games," he told DPA. "You have a number of things to dismantle, to change, to adapt for post-Games use - and that can take time."

"London - which has a beautiful park now, works very well and is very successful - did not happen overnight. They gradually opened the park but it took up to four years to fully realise the whole plan, including the use of the stadium for football by West Ham.

"What they have in mind now for Rio is that by July, all the facilities in the park that were to be dismantled will be dismantled."




Although West Ham United expressed an interest in being involved with the development of the proposed Stratford-based stadium during the club's previous (Icelandic) administration, their offer was rejected by the Olympic planning committee.

Seb Coe (now Lord Coe), Tessa Jowell and Ken Livingstone claimed at the time that the club's offer - which included significant capital investment (£100million) on the basis that fully-retractable seating would be included in the design - was not credible.

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