Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Gary Neville: Don’t sell Wembley to fund grassroots game
FOOTBALL pundit Gary Neville last night blasted plans to sell Wembley and put the money into grassroots football as “ridiculous”.
The ex-manchester United star hit out at plans to sell the stadium, which Fulham owner Shahid Khan has put in a bid for.
Sport chiefs claim the cash is needed to boost the standard of community pitches. But Neville said the estimated £600million price tag was “a pittance in the game of football”.
Giving evidence to the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, Neville, 43, said he believed the money for the amateur game should come from elsewhere.
He told MPS: “The FA feels to fund the grassroots programme they have to sell a national asset – it’s quite simply ridiculous.” He branded it a “short-term plan we’ll regret for ever”.
Neville suggested giving community teams a bigger slice of clubs’ TV earnings, or hitting agents with 25% levies on their fees in order to generate the extra funds needed. He said: “The Government has to intervene to ensure the revenues created within the game are not only used to support the Premier League and elite football but [also] grassroots football.
“The biggest problem for grassroots football is government selling off playing fields and school playing fields over the last 20, 30 years.”
Katrina Law, of the Football Supporters’ Federation, told MPS she had some fears over the sale but it would be a “transformational amount of money” for the grassroots game.