Tottenham may be forced to play Man City at Twickenham | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium crisis may see them forced to play Manchester City at Twickenham rugby stadium when the two sides meet in October.

Spurs’ new £850m home was supposed to be ready in time for Mauricio Pochettino’s side to host Liverpool on 15 September.

However, in recent days it has been revealed that the stadium’s construction will not be finished in time for that game, and the Lilywhites are set to continue their residence at Wembley until an as yet unspecified later date.

But there’s a problem.

Spurs cannot use Wembley for their fixture against Manchester City on 28 October because the national stadium is hosting an NFL game that day.

According to The Sun, the north London outfit asked if the match could be played at the Etihad Stadium instead, but this request was rejected by the Premier League.

That means the City game will either have to be moved to a different date, or be played at London’s 82,000-capacity Twickenham rugby union stadium instead.

If this were to happen, it would require the Premier League to break its own rule which prevents clubs from playing their home games at more than two stadia in the same season.

The reason the match can’t simply be switched to Manchester is because when the reverse fixture rolls around in April, City would have three away games in a row – at Crystal Palace, Spurs and Burnley – at a crucial stage in the season.

Any unauthorised postponements could lead to a fine and a potential points deduction.

The possibility of the game being played at Tottenham’s currently unfinished 62,062-seater stadium with some stands closed for safety reasons has not yet been ruled out.

Update: Since the publication of this story the RFU have been in contact to point out the following quotes from CEO Steve Brown a few months ago about not hosting football at the stadium.

“We are committed to rugby here – big and small, and at the moment we don’t have any plans for football at all,” said Brown.