Paul Fletcher: 'London Stadium should be knocked down and rebuilt'

Generic shot of the London Olympic Stadium, Stratford on May 2, 2013
© Getty Images
West Ham United's London Stadium should be knocked down and rebuilt from scratch to suit their fans, according to stadium expert Paul Fletcher.

West Ham United's London Stadium should be knocked down and rebuilt from scratch to suit football fans, according to stadium expert Paul Fletcher.

The former Burnley chief executive, who advised on the original planning of the stadium, believes that athletics was wrongly put before football at the former Olympic venue.

He told BBC Sport: "What they've done is tried to convert an athletics stadium into a football pitch and, in my opinion, it doesn't work.

"I said what you must do is design a football stadium that converts to an athletics stadium for two weeks of its lifetime.

"Something has to give. If you want to satisfy spectators the only way to get those spectators near that pitch is to knock it down and start again."

West Ham won the bid to occupy the Olympic Stadium in March 2013 and played their first game there in August 2016 after 112 years at Upton Park, but the move has been beset by fan disorder.

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