Shahid Khan has withdrawn his £600m offer to buy Wembley Stadium: Deal off. It had become evident that the proposal would not receive the hoped for two-thirds majority from the FA Council or anything near it at a meeting scheduled for next week.
The 127 person Council is dominated by the 'blazer brigade' from the county associations whom I see strutting around at non-league matches. This of itself says something about the FA's cumbersome and outdated decision-making. One person close to the process told the Financial Times 'There is a reason why England has not won a World Cup since 1966 when decisions are made by a governing body that is organised like this.'
Reaction has necessarily been mixed to what was a divisive proposal. Mark Palios, a former FA chief executive and now chairman of Tranmere Rovers, said on Radio 5 that decision-making should not be driven by emotion and sentiment.
David Conn among others has said that the Premier League should increase its payments to grass roots football. Good luck with that. I also wonder if some of the comments on these lines are tinged with envy and a view that the Premier League is a cash cow to be milked.
How far should a successful business be expected to help unsuccessful ones? I know that football is not a business in the conventional sense and one is talking about community level activities, but there are limits to how much the Premier League should be expected to pay. However, Conn would counter that the clubs are contributing just 3.6 per cent of their television income, short of a promised 5 per cent: Premier League should pay more
Kieran Maguire of the PriceofFootball has pointed out that the repayments of loans and grants means that the sale would not yield £600m for the FA. He has pointed out that if Wembley was sold for £600m the FA would presumably have to repay a £139m loan secured on the stadium and £123 million of grants as it would be difficult to justify these being given to a US billionaire. This would substantially reduce the sum available to the grass roots.
Maguire points out that the main problem with grassroots funding is budget cuts by DMCS and local government due to the austerity programme. The Premier League nearly doubled their contribution to charities and community in 2017 and the FA invested £126m in 2017 but the shortfall is larger due to cuts.
He has also tweeted, 'Since 2007, when new Wembley stadium was completed, the FA has given £149 million to Football Foundation for grass roots support and £236 million to banks in loan interest to fund stadium.'
Responding to calls from David Bernstein for a levy on Premier League clubs, Kieran Maguire has commented, 'I’m all for giving the Premier League some stick when deserved, but it already pays a tax in the form of existing agreements with PFA, EFL, Football Foundation and so on which are linked to TV deal income. Mr Bernstein should know this surely.'
There were certainly concerns about sponsors that might become associated with the 'national stadium' such as gambling companies. Many consider that more international matches should be played at the many excellent stadiums around the country. The Wembley brand has arguably been diluted by staging play offs and semi-finals there, although of course they bring in much needed revenue.
Should the FA really be an events management company? Many of the events staged at Wembley are not football but, for example, boxing matches and pop concerts (I am always amused when an ageing star is playing at Wembley and groups of women of a certain age get on the Marylebone train equipped with bottles of white wine).
Shahid Khan has not ruled out reviving his offer, but that is unlikely to happen any time soon.
Comments
Post a Comment