Tottenham to play preseason friendly with West Ham in Australia

Lots of news this morning, but let’s start with something fun — Tottenham Hotspur announced early today that the team is heading Down Under for a preseason tour! Tottenham will play against West Ham in a preseason friendly in Perth on Tuesday, July 18.

The trip to Perth is apparently the first stop in a Spurs Asia-Pacific tour, the full details of which were not announced. Tottenham will play West Ham at the Optus Stadium in Perth, the third largest stadium in Australia with a capacity of 65,000 fans in “football configuration,” and the home of Australian Football League’s Fremantle and West Coast Eagles teams.

Spurs didn’t reveal further details of their Asia-Pacific tour, but did say that they’ll play two additional friendly matches after the trip Down Under in two different Asian cities. It’s very clearly the big international tour for the summer, so American fans hoping for a Spurs return States-side will be disappointed and hoping for next season.

This is the second time in recent memory that Spurs have visited Australia; the last time was in 2014 when Mauricio Pochettino was in charge. Spurs played matches against Atletico Madrid and Juventus and lifted the “AIA Cup” at the end of that tour.