More Athletics = no European football

  • by Staff Writer
  • Thursday, 17th August 2017

Athletes from Great Britain and the United States will meet at the Olympic Stadium next summer in a freshly-devised competition entitled 'The Meet'.

Niels de Vos, chief executive of British Athletics confirmed that the event would be taking place next summer at the stadium on Saturday, 21 July - less than three weeks before the 2018/19 Premier League season commences.

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"British Athletics and USA Track & Field (USATF) have today announced that two of the strongest nations in global athletics will go head-to-head in a new format, one-day competition next year," read a statement on britishathletics.org.uk.

"Hosted by British Athletics, the event will be staged at the London Stadium, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, East London."

Whilst the event shouldn't impact on West Ham's Premier League campaign this time around, it WILL however affect the club should they qualify for the preliminary stages of European competition at the end of the current campaign.

This season (2017/18), Europa League qualifiers began on 26 June and 2 July (1st round). The second qualifying round took place on 13 and 20 July and the third qualifying round on 27 July and 2 August.

All of these dates will almost certainly to be unavailable to West Ham next season as a result of the planned Athletics meet.

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And should the Hammers by some miracle qualify for the Champions League, the third qualifying round took place this year on 14 July and 2 August - which again means it is extremely unlikely that the stadium will have been returned to 'football mode' in time.

West Ham Vice-Chair Karren Brady previously insisted that West Ham have the ability to veto any event taking place at the stadium during the regular football season.


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