£1bn for grass-roots from Wembley sale

FA chief executive Martin Glenn has promised to spend more than £1billion on grass-roots football by 2030 as a result of the proposed Wembley sale.

Glenn also announced yesterday that there were guarantees and safeguards in place up to 2057, if the deal with Fulham owner Shahid Khan goes through. These would cover any potential name changes, resale options and even protection for the Royal Box.

The agreement would contain all the commitments to the Wembley sporting calendar apart from England internationals in the autumn that clash with NFL games. Those games would be relocated around the country.

Glenn’s passionate speech at yesterday’s FA council meeting silenced the expected opposition from councillors who found it difficult to argue against his tour de force on Wembley. It was a far cry from his recent gaffe- prone comments and leaves the deal looking likely to go through.

Not for the first time, the council talked a good game in the build-up to what was positioned as a crisis meeting over Wembley only to mount little or no objection in the chamber.

Heavyweight backbenchers Jez Moxey, Sir Dave Richards, Barry Taylor and Malcolm Clarke asked relevant questions about the proposed £600million purchase by Khan, who also owns the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL franchise.

But Glenn had an answer for everything on this occasion and there was no widespread swell of support for the speakers from the rest of the floor, even though 80 per cent of councillors at the last national game meeting were said to be against the sale.

Glenn mocked suggestions that such deep opposition represented a ‘meltdown’ — a reference to

Sportsmail’s back-page headline about the initial anger among councillors when Khan’s offer was revealed.

Glenn said: ‘ Receiving an offer to sell Wembley Stadium is not “a betrayal”. It is not selling the “soul of the game”. Nor is it a desperate action by a desperate organisation. We do not need to sell and we can and will do the things we have planned to do no matter what.

‘There is no need for drama, emotive language or any “meltdowns”. What we have in front of us is simply an opportunity.’ That opportunity saw Glenn paint the scenario of the £600m sale to Khan (below) leading in just over 10 years to the FA investing over £1billion in community football facilities and still having a £450m capital fund. And that would mean, according to Glenn, doubling the number of 3G pitches across the country and providing every county FA with its own hub facility. Glenn added that the £600m asking price was the result of many months of work between the FA and advisors Rothschilds. He said it was ‘considerably higher than the first offer received and represents good value for a part of the organisation that makes us little money’. The FA chief executive was also hopeful that the Government would be prepared to keep the £161m of public money that went towards funding Wembley’s construction invested in community football.