SOCCER: Conspiracy theories abounded last night after a nerve-tingling climax to the Premiership season when police were called in to investigate a mystery food poisoning outbreak that struck 10 Tottenham Hotspur players and, in all probability, denied the club a place in the Champions League.
An off-colour Spurs crashed to a 2-1 defeat at West Ham after it was ruled the match would have to go ahead, while their north London rivals Arsenal beat Wigan 4-2 in the final match at Highbury to clinch fourth place and qualification for Europe's elite competition.
While Arsenal fans celebrated, Spurs were left wondering what had caused the bug to sweep through their squad. Police were called in at 1pm yesterday after consultations between the chairman Daniel Levy, the club secretary John Alexander and club doctor Charlotte Cowie. Blood and urine samples have been taken from the sick players for examination and the Tottenham board will meet today to consider further action.
The Spurs manager Martin Jol said he did not suspect foul play and that the club had a "rough idea" what had caused the poisoning, leading to suggestions that the 10 players had eaten the same dish at their east London hotel.
The players were Michael Dawson, Michael Carrick, Edgar Davids, Robbie Keane, Radek Cerny, Calum Davenport, Teemu Tainio, Aaron Lennon, Lee Barnard and Tom Huddlestone. All but the last two played some part in yesterday's defeat.
"We feel gutted. It is a big disappointment," said Jol, adding that Spurs had hoped to get the game delayed for three or four hours, or postponed until today but neither option had been possible. "We made the decision with the whole squad to do the warm-up and everybody said they wanted to play the game," said Jol, who praised his players for showing great character and resilience. He ruled out an appeal against the Premier League's decision that the game had to go ahead.
The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger commiserated. "What happened to Tottenham I don't know. I feel sorry for that. We knew what happened at West Ham was out of our hands. It is cruel for Tottenham but sport is like that."
Tottenham's squad had booked into Marriott West India Quay Hotel, at Canary Wharf, on Saturday and settled down for a buffet dinner at 7.30pm. It is not known what the players chose in a private dining room at the hotel, which specialises in fresh seafood from Billingsgate market. A typical menu offers a dozen oysters for £14, followed by a combination of prime fillet steak skewers and grilled jumbo shrimps with jambalaya rice.
Jol was woken by the club doctor at 5am yesterday with news of several sick players and confessed to feeling unwell himself. "It was a very awkward situation and I had not experienced it before in my career," he said.
By 11am Premier League officials had been called to the hotel after Tottenham expressed concern about their ability to fulfil the 3pm fixture. "We had 10 players in bed. Then we asked the Premier League to postpone the kick-off for three hours until six o'clock and that wasn't possible." Frantic negotiations took place between league officials, Tottenham's management and medical staff and the police. The latter said the kick-off could be delayed until 5pm, but no later, because of concerns about public order if fans had been drinking all day.
Guardian Service
Champions: Chelsea.
Champions League: Manchester Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal.
Uefa Cup: Tottenham, Blackburn, West Ham.
Intertoto Cup: Newcastle.
Relegated: Birmingham, West Brom, Sunderland
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