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It's decison time for Spurs on Wembley

Tottenham Hotspur will have to pay the FA rent for the entire season if they want to stage matches at Wembley beyond their home game against Burnley on December 15th. The FA are in principle ready to be accommodating: after all, it is extra money for them.

Until now the FA has been willing to adopt a piecemeal approach to Tottenham's tenancy at the national stadium. However, with the pitch due to be relaid and work on demolition of the external pedestrian walkway scheduled for early next year, it needs to know how the stadium is going to be used.

If the Tottenham Hotspur stadium is not ready for the Boxing Day game against Bournemouth, as seems more than likely, they would have to pay the FA for using Wembley at a rate of £350,000 per game, even if they had already moved.

Spending the season at Wembley risks further annoying fans who are already angry about paying for season tickets at a stadium that is not yet open. Big construction projects often overrun, but Spurs would have helped themselves by opening up to fans about the scale and extent of the problems they faced.

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