FA In Talks To Sell Wembley For £800m

April 26, 2018

The owner of Fulham FC and the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, Shahid Khan, has made a reported £800m ($1.1bn) bid to buy Wembley from the Football Association.

The FA are due to discuss the billionaire’s offer this week.

Khan has confirmed that if his bid were to be successful, it would not affect his involvement with the Championship football club. Furthermore, the London-based stadium could be used to host further NFL games, as the Jacksonville Jaguars have already played a number of matches at the iconic ground.

Khan said of his proposal: “If my ownership interests were to include Wembley Stadium, it would protect the Jaguars’ position in London at a time when other NFL teams are understandably becoming more interested in this great city.

“Wembley would return to private ownership and The Football Association would be able to focus on its core mission of developing players.

Michael Cunnah, Chairman of iSportconnect and former CEO of Wembley, believes the sale of the ground makes sense and was always the long-term goal: “The bid is no surprise, a good idea and fits in with the original FA strategy for building the stadium in the first place. That is, to create a revenue stream in order to develop grass roots football across the country.”

The 90,000-seat venue, the largest in the UK, cost £757m ($1.05bn) to build and opened in 2007.

Khan acquired the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2011, and Fulham in 2013.