Hammers expected down under

Adelaide United chairman Greg Griffin claims that his Australian team are close to securing West Ham for a preseason friendly clash at Adelaide at the Oval  Down Under in July.

Griffin said negotiations to bring West Ham to Australia had started last September before he was handed the formal letter from the Hammers to confirm the deal.

He was confident the Hammers would stay in Adelaide for five days to conduct some of their pre-season over the summer at the Reds’ training centre at Elizabeth and at Coopers Stadium.

West Ham is expected to face Adelaide at the Oval before meeting Perth Glory in Perth.

Speaking to the Australian press last week Griffin said: “We’re in the middle of negotiations and I got the formal letter last night. We first met West Ham officials in September and now we’re at this point. I have also last week spoken to Sports Minister Leon Bignell about this huge development and to Darren Chandler (Adelaide Oval’s stadium management authority’s general manager for commercial operations).”

A Perth Glory spokesman was less confident saying: “discussions between the clubs were ongoing, but nothing was confirmed at this stage.”

A West Ham insider confirmed talks were ongoing but nothing has been agreed as yet.