The legends match attended by the council leader took place 40 days after Tottenham Hotspur won approval for its women’s academy at Whitewebbs Park
Enfield Council leader Ergin Erbil has said he accepted free Tottenham Hotspur tickets “in good faith”.
According to his own gifts and hospitalities register, the leader was given five free tickets to watch a Spurs vs AC Milan legends fixture by Tottenham Hotspur FC Foundation, the Premier League club’s charitable arm, on 23rd March this year.
It came just over a month after the council’s planning committee – which Cllr Erbil does not control – voted to approve Tottenham Hotspur’s controversial application for a women’s and girls’ academy at Whitewebbs Park.
However, at the February committee meeting which voted to approve the plans, committee chair Mahym Bedekova also declared that she’d received a free Spurs match ticket, prompting complaints from opposition Conservative councillors.
The council is set to enter into a 25-year lease with Spurs for an area equating roughly to half of the total park, with a third of this area being fenced off for the academy. The deal is worth around £2million to the civic centre, although London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan still needs to give his approval before the contract is signed.
Cllr Erbil is now the third successive Labour leader of the council to have accepted some kind of free ticket or hospitality gift from Spurs, going back over a decade, with Doug Taylor and Nesil Caliskan also having done so during their periods in charge from 2010-2018 and 2018-2024 respectively.
In 2021, Cllr Caliskan denied having any “bias” towards Spurs as a result of the freebies she had received a year earlier, shortly before the council deadline for bids to obtain the lease of Whitewebbs Park Golf Course, eventually awarded to Tottenham Hotspur.
Defending his own decision to accept a Spurs freebie, Cllr Erbil said: “The hospitality in question took place on 23rd March as part of a long-standing charity football event run by Spurs. I was seated with a wide mix of community stakeholders. I paid for my own beer and received no personal benefit beyond the invitation itself, which I declared in line with council rules. I completely reject the idea that this was done to try and influence any council decisions.
“As leader of the council, I do not and cannot sit on the planning committee or licensing committee. I therefore play no role in determining planning applications and have no decision-making power over any licensing matters either. That is as it should be – these processes are independent and governed by strict procedures.”
Cllr Erbil also denied that Spurs had “purchased influence” with the council by handing out free gifts and added: “I acted transparently and in good faith, and I reject the idea that attending a charity event with other community stakeholders compromises my integrity.”
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