West Ham United legal action over Olympic Stadium claims

In a statement on their website the club said they were treating the claims “with the utmost seriousness”.

It comes after an Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) employee was suspended when it emerged she worked for West Ham during their bid to use the stadium after the 2012 Games.

The West Ham website statement said: “We are certain of the robustness of our successful bid for the Olympic Stadium.”

On Friday night it was revealed, in a statement issued by the OPLC to the media that that an OPLC director had been suspended on full pay after it emerged she had been undertaking paid consultancy work for West Ham.

The director, named by West Ham today as Dionne Knight, had declared “a personal relationship” with a Hammers employee when she started at the OPLC, but on Thursday she told the legacy company of her work at the club.

The OPLC said she was being suspended while any possible conflict of interest was investigated.

The OPLC board voted in February to back the Hammers as first choice to move into the �486m stadium after the Games. The OPLC and West Ham United both said Ms Knight had no involvement in that decision.

West Ham said they had already carried out an investigation into the woman’s role with the club.

The club said they would consider lega action against claims made in a national newspaper.

West Ham were awarded the tenancy of the Olympic Stadium at Stratford by the Company earlier this year.

On Friday, the OPLC said that robust measures, had been put in place to ensure the stadium process was not compromised and the woman had no involvement whatsoever in the bid decision.

“The stadium team has been based at our law firm Eversheds’ offices in The City and only the stadium team had access to information about the bids,” said a Legacy company statement.

An independent investigation has been launched by the Company into the episode. The employee has been suspended pending the outcomes of this.