Pitch surround colour doesn’t matter but the principle does

The latest disagreement between West Ham and stadium owners E20 has been aired in yesterday’s papers and with the Times, London Standard, Sun, BBC, Sky Sports and the Daily Star each giving it column inches and coverage.

Personally, I am not bothered whether the pitch surround is Blue, Claret, Green or Yellow with pink spots on it. The real disappointment is it has shown again how unreasonable E20 are being and how broken their relationship is with West Ham.

Their behaviour is akin to a spoilt child who has not got their own way and is now sulking.  I am sure their lawyers promised them a good chance of winning of the expert determination but that’s what the legal profession do! A lawyer will always say it is fifty/fifty. They were wrong and West Ham won the legal process on every point they contested.

Now is the time to be gracious and admit they were wrong and move on to build constructive dialogue and relationship with West Ham. Unfortunately, it doesn’t often work like that in the civil service in a culture where blame is rarely admitted and mistakes are swept under the carpet.