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Should we sell Wembley Stadium?

A friend who is not particularly interested in football asked me for my opinion on the sale of Wembley Stadium to Shahid Khan, the owner of Fulham. I have been intending to write a piece of analysis on this, but other stories have intervened. However, I told her that I thought the proposed deal was very dodgy and certainly there are signs of increasing resistance from the FA Council, despite the promise of a bonanza for grass roots football.

It is interesting that The Economist ran an article on the topic in their last issue. They don't write a lot about football, but what they do is usually quite authoritative (or at least they would like to think it is).

They noted that the view that selling Wembley was not the best way to modernise the game was gathering momentum. They admitted that valuing Wembley as a stadium is particularly hard as it is not part of a rich Premier League club.

They pointed out that the cash the FA would receive would be substantially lower than the amount it had spent on the site since 1999. As a liberal, free market newspaper they warned: 'Mr Khan is the sole bidder, so there is no pressure on him to improve his offer. If the FA does sell up, it will be saying goodbye to its only substantial asset.'

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