Following a meeting with the FA Premier League on Wednesday, Levy wrote a second open letter within two days, this time to Tottenham supporters. In it the club chairman says, ‘We continue to feel justifiably aggrieved at the course of events and remain convinced that the game (the last one of the season, against West Ham on Sunday which ended in a 2-1 defeat, consigning Spurs to fifth place in the league) should never have been played.'
Furthermore, he assured Tottenham supporters that the club remains ‘determined to, at the very least, establish whether or not there was a deliberate act of sabotage striking at the very heart of the spirit of the competition.'
Levy, like the club's supporters and some other Premier League club chairmen and chief executives, also 'feels a sense of despair at the state of the wholly inadequate and ambiguous governing rules that fail to regulate such incidents.'
He added: ‘I know it may be extremely difficult to conclusively prove, but if there is a price to be paid, I shall look to ensure that it is paid. Additionally, if we do find any proof of foul play, we will bring this matter back to the FA Premier League without delay and will expect them to launch an immediate investigation in the interests of the competition.'
Yesterday Richard Scudamore, the chief executive of the FA Premier League replied to Levy's open letter sent to David Richards, the FA Premier League chairman on Tuesday. In it he wrote: ‘Our representative at the hotel (where Tottenham had stayed the night before the match) relayed to the board in detail the medical opinion of Dr Charlotte Cowie. The Board gathered its facts and gave the matter due consideration. It was satisfied that the following significant facts pertained:
17 players had been at the team hotel overnight. 6 players had been confirmed as having suffered from either sickness and/or diarrhoea that morning. And of those only two were in the starting eleven for Tottenham's last three Premier League matches. 2 other players had felt unwell but had not suffered from sickness and/or diarrhoea.'
However, it remained unclear what timeframe Scudamore was using exactly when he referred to the morning, since players were believed to have fallen ill throughout the morning and up until the point they left the hotel for Upton Park. Following a telephone conversation with Scudamore, players and management had decided there was more to lose potentially by not fulfilling the fixture. Missing out on UEFA Cup qualification let alone the Champions League, courtesy of docked points, had been the major concern.
He went on to add further insult: ‘3 other registered players had been contacted by Tottenham and were able to make themselves available. We had also made an informed estimate as to how many registered players Tottenham had. On checking records it turned out to be as follows:
48 registered players (full contracts) +9 scholars = 52 eligible to play (6 out on loan, 1 in on loan), 33 players had been used in the first team this season.'
But this is irrelevant information considering players were injured, and others had not been available at short notice.