West Ham have beaten Tottenham to be officially confirmed as the preferred bidders to take over the Olympic Stadium after the London 2012 Games. The Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) announced their decision at a news conference in Westminster on Friday.
The choice of West Ham will see the athletics track retained inside a 60,000-capacity stadium in Stratford, east London.
The decision has to be ratified by the Government and London mayor Boris Johnson, but that is seen as a formality.
Johnson said: "This is a very significant step forward towards delivering the Olympic Park legacy and the Legacy Company has run a thoroughly professional and robust process.
"This milestone means we now have the prospect of a local football club and a multi-use venue capable of hosting athletics, a range of other sports and a vibrant programme of events for the local community and schools.
"I am thrilled that the Legacy Company board has arrived at a recommendation for me and my colleagues in Government to consider.
"I am confident that we will be able to respond quickly to the advice of the Legacy Company in making our decision."
In a joint statement, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: "Today's recommendation by the OPLC board marks an important milestone for the future of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and the whole of the Olympic project.
"We would like to thank Baroness Ford and all her board members for the conscientious and thorough way they have approached the decision making process.
"We will look through their recommendation in detail before coming to our own decision. We aim to make a formal announcement to Parliament shortly."
In a statement, the British Olympic Association said: "The recommendation announced today by the Olympic Park Legacy Company is a victory for athletes, for sport and, importantly, for the generations of young people who will see their lives transformed as a result of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
"We hope this recommendation will ensure the London Games will be the beginning, rather than the end, of a dynamic new era for Olympic, high performance and grassroots sport in Great Britain.
"This is also a victory for the reputation of British sport globally. When the London 2012 bid team stood before members of the International Olympic Committee in 2005 and asked for their vote, they did so with a commitment to deliver a meaningful legacy from the Olympic Games, including the retention of an athletics track inside the iconic Olympic Stadium.
"The recommendation announced today, if ultimately accepted, will be a major step forward in delivering on that promise." Baroness Ford, chair of the OPLC, insisted the selection process had been fair and robust.
She described the decision as "the very best legacy for the stadium, cracking for the community of east London, excellent news for the UK taxpayer and very good for sport".
Ford told the news conference: "Each bidder has put an enormous amount of effort into this. We are delighted to have two robust, competitive bids.
"Our job today was to judge the merits against the five criteria we have set out from the start of the process. "Our board has considered this really carefully and we have made a unanimous recommendation to select West Ham and the London borough of Newham as the long-term tenant for our Olympic Stadium.
"This has not been an easy decision and, despite what has been trailed in some of the newspapers, this has not been a fait accompli.
"We have taken this very seriously indeed. Both bidders were considered seriously on the merits - that's what our job was."
West Ham co-owner David Gold said the endorsement of their bid to move into the 2012 Olympic Stadium represented a "great day for Great Britain".
"We are very, very excited about what happened today and it is nice to be on the winning side.
"We represented what is right, what is fair and what is honest."
The OPLC board voted unanimously in favour of the proposal from West Ham and their partners Newham Council, who had promised to retain the athletics track at the stadium.
The Spurs bid would have involved knocking down most of the existing structure to build a new one and expanding athletics facilities at Crystal Palace, rather than keeping the sport in Stratford.
"It is a great day for England and Great Britain because we are keeping our promise," he added.
"Lord Coe gave a promise on behalf of us all and it would have been a tragedy if that had been broken."
Spurs accepted the OPLC's verdict but demanded that West Ham's pledge to keep the running track at the stadium be legally binding.
"Much has been made of the promise to keep the athletics track within the Olympic Stadium and, therefore, we should all expect to see the retention of this track firmly embedded and legally guaranteed by those entrusted with this legacy commitment, today and in the future," the statement read.
"The OPLC's decision has still to be approved by two Government departments and the Mayor's Office. We shall continue to monitor the bid process over the coming weeks up until its final determination, whilst reviewing our position and holding discussions with our advisors."
The Hammers proposed move to the Olympic stadium could have a major impact on League One club Leyton Orient, whose Brisbane Road home is only two miles from the Stratford venue.
Orient chairman Barry Hearn has said either club taking over the Olympic stadium would contravene Premier League and Football League rules over clubs moving into the "immediate vicinity" of other clubs.
But Premier League spokesman Dan Johnson told BBC Sport the league had already approved the proposals.
"In examining all our criteria set out in our rules there was no reason why either club shouldn't move to the Olympic stadium," he said.
