Damning report on Tottenham stadium delay: 'There were people off their heads... drinking cans in the morning before snorting coke in the toilets'

Tottenham's new stadium is largely complete but critical safety systems are not yet ready. Photo / Getty

Workers at Tottenham Hotspur's delayed stadium swigged cans of booze first thing in the morning before snorting cocaine in the toilets, it has been claimed.

According to a damning report on the yet-to-open venue, an atmosphere of chaos and poor communication has plagued the project, with physical altercations allegedly breaking out on site.

Industry publication Construction News says it has heard first-hand accounts of workers being under the influence of alcohol and cocaine – claims strongly denied by contractor Mace.

The new report claims that there has been 'chaos' on the building site and that confusion reigns among subcontractors who are being paid to deliver the state-of-the-art, 62,000 capacity ground.

Construction News also lay much of the blame on Tottenham's decision not to appoint an overall contractor, which has led to poor communication and mistakes.

The report claims that:

- Workers have been drinking alcohol and even taking cocaine while on site
- Fights broke out between some of the nearly 4,000 workers employed on the job
- Electricians have been working in chaotic conditions and in some cases the same electrical work was done THREE times
- Staff felt they were not provided with the right tools to complete their work
- Vital materials were not available, meaning teams had to work with whatever supplies were available
- Construction manager Mace became a 'toothless lion' due to Spurs' actions

"I've not worked on a site like that in a long, long time," one source told Construction News, claiming: "There were people off their heads, drinking cans first thing in the morning before going on to site and snorting coke in the toilets."

Unnamed sources also told the publication that an unclear management structure and lack of communication led to a series of almost comical mistakes which have contributed to delays at the stadium, which was meant to open on September 15.

They have spoken of two occasions where electrical wiring had to be ripped out because air conditioning units had not been installed and the message was not passed on.

Another mistake occurred when electricians arrived to connect some wiring, only to find that a ceiling had been installed which prevented them from completing the work.

"They are like a toothless lion, they have got no claws and no teeth," a source said to Construction News about Mace.

"This situation is quite strange. [Mace] can only say, 'This area is ready, could you please deploy someone and sort it out?''.

The report, which claims the stadium will not be ready until the first week of January, also claims that materials were not delivered on time and alleges incidents where workers did not have the correct tools to complete the tasks at hand.

"What should take a week normally takes a month, because of the sheer scale of it, but also because the communication is horrendous," a source added.

Spurs are yet to set a date for the venue's opening. As revealed by the Daily Mail, there are fears it will not be ready until the new year, with officials said to have warned chairman Daniel Levy - who hopes the club will be at their new home before the December 15 visit of Burnley - that there could come a point when the club would have to commit to playing at Wembley for the remainder of the campaign.

A Mace spokesman said the company strongly refuted the allegations made in Construction News's report.

"Any suggestion that our rigorous standards around best practise or drugs and alcohol had been broken would be taken extremely seriously," they added. "We carry out regular random drugs and alcohol testing to ensure that our rules are enforced throughout our supply chain.

"The club and the construction team are working diligently to complete the iconic stadium as soon as possible. Although these delays are obviously frustrating, once complete the new stadium is going to leave a fantastic, lasting legacy and will be a project everyone involved will be proud to be associated with."

A Tottenham spokesman said: 'We have always said that we would issue updates for test events and official opening as soon as we have confidence in our project managers' and contractors' ability to deliver against the revised scheduled of works.

"This remains the case and speculating on unsupported dates such as this is irresponsible."