Tottenham have released a statement hitting back at allegations they ordered surveillance of all 14 members of the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) board during their unsuccessful battle for the Olympic Stadium, following the arrest of a man on suspicion of fraud offences.
OPLC chairman Baroness Ford told the London Assembly on Tuesday that the Metropolitan Police were now conducting an investigation into that surveillance.
The bitterness of the battle for the Olympic Stadium was publicly laid bare as Ford, head of the body in charge of securing a viable economic future for the home of the London 2012 Games, said: "The thing that I have learned in the last 12 months is that there has been all kinds of behaviour.
"There has been legal challenges and people have stood behind it anonymously - all kinds of things have happened.
"My board were put under surveillance by Tottenham Hotspur and the chairman of Tottenham Hotspur felt confident enough to say that in the Sunday Times several months ago that all 14 members of my board were put under surveillance.
"The Metropolitan Police are now conducting an investigation into that surveillance.
"There has been all kinds of behaviour here that I could not have anticipated which, believe me, has not been pleasant in the last 12 months."
Tottenham were quick to deny the claims in a statement released by law firm Russell Cooke.
The statement read: "The club did not undertake, instruct or engage any party to conduct surveillance on any member of the OPLC Committee and we consider the making of this baseless accusation to be wholly inappropriate and irresponsible.
"We totally reject the accusation in the strongest possible terms."
A deal with West Ham and Newham Council to use the stadium in Stratford, east London, after the 2012 Games collapsed last month amid legal challenges, with the Government announcing that the stadium would remain in public ownership.
Tottenham had already lost out to West Ham in the race to become the OPLC's first choice to move into the stadium after the Games.
Legal challenges by Tottenham and Leyton Orient, plus an anonymous complaint to the European Commission, had led to fears that court action could drag on for years while the stadium remained empty.
A new tender process is being launched by the OPLC and the showpiece venue, complete with an athletics track, will now remain in public ownership and be rented out to an anchor tenant.
Baroness Ford told the London Assembly's Economy, Culture and Sport (ECS) Committee: "I am expecting the unexpected because that is what the last 12 months has taught me.
"Our job now is to narrow as far as we possibly can the scope now for legitimate legal challenge in this next process - that is all that we can do.
"If people want then to be vexatious, frivolous and vindictive or whatever they want - they will do that."
ECS committee chairman Dee Doocey said: "I personally find it appalling, and I am sure I speak for the rest of the committee, at the very idea of your board being put under surveillance is reprehensible.
"It almost beggars belief that this thing can happen. The idea that any board can be put under surveillance is absolutely disgraceful."
Scotland Yard later confirmed that the investigation into the surveillance claims are 'very much active', with a 29-year-old man arrested.
A spokesman said: "We can confirm that West Ham Football Club and the Olympic Park Legacy Company have made allegations to the Metropolitan Police Service in respect of the unlawful obtaining of personal information.
"These allegations have been assessed and an investigation has now commenced by officers from the Economic and Specialist Crime Command."
