Twickenham for sale? No chance, says RFU chief

Steve Brown, chief executive of the Rugby Football Union, is adamant that Twickenham will not host any football teams at the stadium. That includes the likes of Chelsea, for whom a switch to Wembley while Stamford Bridge is being rebuilt would appear beyond reach given the national stadium’s sale.

“We are committed to rugby

here – big and small, and at the moment we don’t have any plans for football at all,” said Brown, who acknowledged that there are deals in place to host NFL matches, as has been the practice in recent years.

Football, though, is considered to be a non-starter as there have been years of discussions with local residents and councils about going beyond the regular staging of other activities, be it NFL or music concerts. “We have an arrangement and an agreement with the local authority

that we will stick to the sports that I have mentioned, that is rugby and NFL,” said Brown, who succeeded Ian Ritchie into office at the start of this season, having made a success of being managing director of England 2015 Rugby World Cup when several games were staged at football stadiums.

However, there is no appetite within the RFU to reverse that situation and see football played there for the first time. “Football isn’t on our radar for this stadium.”

Brown also insisted that, even if he is committed to staging a Test match away from Twickenham – one of England’s World Cup warmup games for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, probably at the Etihad or Old Trafford in Manchester – there was no prospect of the RFU being open to bidding for Twickenham from outside sources. “We have no consideration of selling Twickenham or even entertaining those thoughts,” said Brown. “We haven’t been approached at all, either.”