By George Overhill

13th Aug, 2022 | 8:40am

talkSPORT pundits tear West Ham United and London Stadium apart over beer outrage

Simon Jordan emptied both barrels on West Ham and the owners of the London Stadium live on talkSPORT over the prices of pints at the Manchester City game.

Fans were charged a minimum of £7.30 for a beer in Stratford on the opening weekend of the season, leading to the club to threaten legal action against the owners of the ground, a London Legacy Development Corporation body.

The club claim that there is a clause in their agreement that says the catering is supposed to fall in line with prices charged at other London clubs and that it has been broken, while their landlords dispute this and claim they shared the pricing before the season.

Jim White reported that he understands there is a clause, and that therefore “somebody’s telling porkies here”, while Jordan bluntly said that “the landlord’s a liar then aren’t they?”, but he reserved most of his criticism for the Hammers themselves.

Speaking live on talkSPORT Friday morning (12 August, 10.35am) Jordan said: “If you don’t know the price of what your valued fans are going to be charged at a fundamental part of the experience inside the stadium… why don’t you know?

“If there’s a clause in the contract… then it will be very simply rectified won’t it? Ultimately there is no vested interest for West Ham besides bad publicity. That bad publicity has got them off their backsides and made them aware of it.

“Dollars for doughnuts Karren [Brady] would have been aware of it, and they haven’t paid much attention because there’s nothing in it for them.”

He went on to accuse the club and the stadium owners of profiteering, saying: “West Ham profited by getting a stadium for nothing. West Ham’s responsibility was to ensure that a contract was upheld”.

The ex-Crystal Palace chairman ultimately blamed the latest issue on the original agreement to rent the stadium, adding: “West Ham have nicked this deal and there is an element of resentment from the people who allowed them to nick it.”

Old chestnut

Nobody is coming out of this one with any credit then, when it felt like the club might actually be standing up for the fans in the face of extortionate pricing for once.

But if they are just playing to the crowd and trying to get the fans onside when they were ready to let it slide then clearly the supporters are being treated terribly, when a cost of living crisis is already squeezing them hugely.

Jordan never misses an opportunity to get a few kicks in at the Hammers ownership, and often he is justified in doing so.

The Stadium owners are surely the bigger issue on this one though if they are the ones driving the pricing.

Leaving Upton Park for the then-Olympic Stadium was as controversial among the fans as the deal itself was with the wider public.

The club can essentially now never live it down, especially with the same owners in place, and if David Sullivan and David Gold do sell up once their windfall tax obligation expires [Daily Mail] it will be all the more unpalatable for most.

For now the prices just have to be brought down so the fans can get on with trying to watch some football without being bankrupted at the stadium as well as at home.