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Interview

The Barry Hearn Interview Part 3

For my third topic following my Interview with Barry Hearn I wanted to talk about Barry’s apparent love of Spurs!

I asked Barry Hearn why he supported the Spurs bid for the Olympic Stadium by sending a letter to the Premier League?

BH “The bidding process comes up, Daniel Levy says would you support us?, I said, Daniel, this is the gospel truth, Daniel, you don’t have a f****ing prayer of getting this stadium but I will support you because 1) you don’t have a prayer 2) you have a bigger support base than West ham and you won’t be discounting tickets 3) If you do get in I will do my best to stop you. So as far you and West ham I prefer Tottenham. Basically what I am saying is I don’t either of you"

BH “When we supported Spurs, there was no way possible Spurs ever had a prayer of getting in, the premier league rules alone would of resulted in court cases coming out for 20 years, Even Daniel Levy knew, he was being used but Daniel’s a smart kid, he didn’t mind being used because he knew if he was used that he was going to get a benefit somewhere else”

You do seem to have a cosy relationship with Spurs as you have loaned a number of players from them.

BH “Only because they want to loan them, Harry has been great and given us players, West Ham gave us one player years ago but we have never had a relationship with West Ham on our door step, never had a phone call for a player, never!”

I asked Barry whether he used to be a Spurs fan?

BH “ I went for 2 years, I went to Leyton Orient when I was 11 years old, my parents wouldn’t let me at 11 go to a big club, you go to a small club, so I went to Leyton Orient, after 2 years I was 13 and I was ready to go to a big club. I went to Tottenham for two years and I saw two great years of football by the way, 61/62 and 62/63 the double team but the truth of it is I’m not much of a football fan at all I am a Leyton Orient fan”

I also asked Barry whether he turned up at Leyton Orient on his first day as chairman with a Spurs sticker in his car as told to me by a Leyton Orient fan.

BH “Absolutely correct and do you know why? Because in 1987 I did Bruno v Bugner at White Hart Lane, 1992 I did Eubank v Watson at White Hart Lane, part of the rental deal was I had to buy some hospitality seats at Tottenham as part of the deal for renting the ground. They wanted to boost their hospitality sales, my son went and he put a sticker in my car. I never personally went myself once”

I asked do Leyton Orient fans know that?

BH “No, F** off What’s it got to do with them?”

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