FORMER West Ham supremo Eggert Magnusson says the London Stadium must be torn down and rebuilt.
The Icelander drew up plans for the venue to become the Hammers’ home back in 2006.
But they were rejected because London 2012 chief Lord Coe wanted an athletics legacy following the Olympics.
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The Hammers were eventually granted tenancy — but only after the stadium was built.
They moved in at the start of this season but the switch has been beset by problems.
Overall costs spiralled to more than £750million while club chiefs have battled to deal with crowd trouble.
Magnusson, 69, said his plans would have avoided the violence and saved a fortune.
He said: “You cannot build an Olympic stadium and THEN make it a football stadium.
“You BEGIN with football in mind. We had plans and costings for a stadium with retractable seats, like the Stade de France.
“Upton Park had a special atmosphere and you want fans to hear tackles and what the managers are saying. What we have now is a mess.
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“Money has been thrown down the toilet and the original plans could have saved hundreds of millions.
“The stadium is simply unfit for football. It’s a coliseum for athletics — you have people 40 metres from the pitch, moving to concourses so they can see.
“You have big open spaces outside, which are very difficult to police, and rival fans sharing concourses inside.
“The seats are very slow and expensive to move as they were an after-thought. I really feel sorry for the fans.
“I don’t think anything can be done now. It’s better for it to be torn down and started from scratch.”
Magnusson met with former mayor Ken Livingstone, Olympics minister Tessa Jowell and other senior Games figures.
And the Hammers chairman from 2006 to 2007 recalled: “It was heated. They wanted it to be a monument to athletics.
“Lord Coe had ambitions to be IOC president, so he demanded this. They offered us another site but it wasn’t right. They did not want us in at all.”
West Ham signed a 99-year lease in 2013 after a ruling from mayor Boris Johnson.
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