Watford believe Tottenham will threaten the ‘integrity’ of League Cup if match is moved to Milton Keynes

EXCLUSIVE
Moving the goalposts | Spurs have applied to play their League Cup third-round match in Milton Keynes
Getty Images
Dan Kilpatrick @Dan_KP31 August 2018

Watford believe the integrity of the League Cup would be compromised if opponents Tottenham are allowed to play their third-round match in Milton Keynes.

The EFL board are expected to approve Spurs’s request for special dispensation to play the fixture against the Hornets at the home of MK Dons , 50 miles outside London, when they meet next Thursday.

Spurs’s new £850million stadium will not be ready in time for next month’s tie, while Wembley is unavailable because of Anthony Joshua’s fight against Alexander Povetkin.

A Watford source told Standard Sport: “The integrity of the competition should stand above everything else. If Tottenham cannot fulfil the fixture, then we believe it should be reversed.”

Watford agreed to reverse this Sunday’s Premier League match against Spurs in June but the latest situation could spark boardroom tension.

Both Spurs and MK Dons insist the arrangement is only in place for the third-round fixture and, should they win, the Londoners could return to Wembley for the fourth round if they are drawn at home and the national stadium is available.

In a statement, Spurs admitted the situation was “not ideal” but added: “The club felt it would not be beneficial to request a reverse of the fixture as it would have resulted in no more than a 10 per cent allocation of tickets for our supporters at the venue of our opponents. In contrast, we shall have a ticket allocation of up to 90 per cent at a neutral venue, ensuring greater access for our fans.”

The club consulted a fans’ survey by the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust before reaching a decision, which revealed 46 per cent preferred an alternative home venue, compared to 43 per cent in favour reversing the fixture. But 70 per cent wanted the neutral venue to be within the M25, which Spurs said “was simply not possible”.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in