Tottenham Hotspur start High Court fight with local business

The club's plans to move into a new stadium have been delayed until at least 2018 by the judicial review prompted by Archway

A sign for the new ground development is seen next to the fire damaged Archway Sheet Metal Works (GETTY IMAGES)

Football is never short of David and Goliath contests but Tottenham Hotspur v Archway Sheet Metal Works is a new one. That is the contest that begins at London’s High Court tomorrow morning, the culmination of a long and bitter struggle that has involved bomb threats a mountain of legal papers and a mysterious blaze.

The old family firm, which makes equipment for the catering and hospitality industries, is based just a few yards from the North Stand at Tottenham Hotspur’s White Hart Lane home. It is the last remaining business to oppose Tottenham’s plan to build a new stadium on an expanded site and has rejected the compulsory purchase order handed to the company by the authorities, compelling it to sell up after planning permission for the ground was granted to the club.

Archway has been opposed to Spurs’ various expansion plans for more than a decade. Last November, a fire broke out at the works and Josif Josif, the 46-year-old who runs the business, said: “People were calling us and threatening us and we were receiving bomb threats and that started a few months ago, but we don’t know if that’s got anything to do with it.”

Tottenham’s plans to move into a new stadium have been delayed until at least 2018 by the judicial review prompted by Archway. More than 70 local businesses have been successfully relocated, but the sheet metal works, which occupies a 25,000 sq ft site, has refused to go quietly.

Over the next two days it will be up to Mr Justice Dove to seek to find a solution to the action brought by the metalwork firm. At a previous hearing his own loyalties were called into question, but he confirmed he is an Aston Villa fan.