West Ham United is reportedly in talks with London 2012 Olympics organisers about moving into the Olympic stadium after the Games.

Sports minister Richard Caborn confirmed rumours last Friday (20 October) that the club’s chair, Terry Brown, was in “very serious negotiations” with Olympic authorities regarding the stadium.

He said: “Talks are going on about whether they could do a similar thing to Manchester City when they took over the Commonwealth Games stadium in 2002.”

Ken Livingstone, mayor of London, ruled out the possibility of a football club taking over the stadium in 2004 – saying that the 80,000-seat venue would be scaled down to hold 25,000 people and remain an athletics facility – and is still opposed to the idea.

Tottenham Hotspur was also interested in moving to the venue, but abandoned plans earlier this month saying that stadia with athletics tracks are not conducive to a good crowd atmosphere.

West Ham, which has recently attracted interest from two potential bidders – the chief executive of Iceland’s football association, Eggert Magnusson and the Iranian-born businessman Kia Joorabchian – is currently second from bottom in the Premiership.