FA Chairman: Tottenham Quite Close to Wembley Deal
Tottenham Hotspur are closing in on a deal to use Wembley Stadium for the 2017-18 season when White Hart Lane will be torn down. This deal could also secure Champions League football to be played at the national stadium too.
The London Evening Standard recently reported this week that the FA and Tottenham were at an advanced stage in negotiations to use Wembley Stadium for the 2017-18 season. Today, the FA chairman, Greg Dyke, says that talks are “quite close” for a deal to happen. Which is obviously good news for the north London club.
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Along with Tottenham being able to use the national stadium for an entire season once they move out of White Hart Lane — should a deal ultimately be agreed on — Spurs could also use Wembley for Champions League football next season. Although that’s a different matter entirely, which Dyke didn’t discuss much further.
Here’s Greg Dyke on the topic of Tottenham and a Wembley deal:
“We’re in discussions with Tottenham that they should come in for a full season when they’re building their new stadium, and we are a long way down the path on reaching agreement.” (quotes via London Evening Standard).
“I think there are some discussions about whether they will play Champions League games at Wembley next year but I don’t know much about that. But on the full season (2017-18), I think we’re quite close to a deal.”
While it’s been known for quite a while, since last summer, that Tottenham were interested in using Wembley Stadium for next year, according to Tom Collomosse of the London Evening Standard, Chelsea might delay their departure from Stamford Bridge after trying to secure it for themselves.
Which means that Spurs currently are the only club talking to the Football Association in order to use Wembley while their new stadium is being built.
If Chelsea decided to reverse course and wants to share Wembley along with Tottenham, it would be for three years.
“Chelsea have really exciting plans for that stadium – to demolish the whole thing and build a new one on the existing site. If they came, that would mean coming for three years.” Dyke indicated to Sky Sports News.
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Tottenham and the FA are looking at a £15 million deal for one season once this deal goes through. That kind of money will greatly help grass-roots football according to Greg Dyke.
“We thought we had a responsibility to English football if we can fit [the clubs] in, and that money we can use to support grass-roots football.”
“In particular, we want to use it to build all-weather pitches, which is something I’ve been going about for two or three years.”
If supporting grass-roots football and building all-weather pitches is something that the Football Association is interested in doing, then it will definitely help speed up negotiations with Tottenham because they will easily make £15 million just for letting Spurs use Wembley stadium for one season — and potentially Champions League games next year if both sides begin those discussions.
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The London Evening Standard stated that talks are at an advanced stage, and if this is the case, then Tottenham should most likely secure Wembley Stadium before the 2015-16 season is over.
It makes sense to secure a deal as soon as possible if Greg Dyke wants to support grass-roots football, and with Spurs willing to remain in London rather than relocating to Milton Keynes and playing at Stadium mk, £15 million is money well spent for the club and their supporters.