GREAT VICTORY FOR ENGLISH FOOTBALL

ENGlANd is getting a national team it can be proud of and, for now at least, that national team still has its home. Shahid Khan has not ruled out returning for Wembley, so this may be like one of those building applications on green belt land that gets submitted and resubmitted until the opposition is worn down — but the good guys won the first battle, meaning, as we stand, Wembley is not on the market.

Those old codgers, the much- maligned FA Council, appear to have done for it, helped by some influential voices inside and out of the game.

They argued their cases on all fronts — logistical, financial, emotional, historical — but together they proved there was no united backing for the sale of the national football stadium to a private party, no matter the promised dividend for the grassroots game.

That those who were most vocally opposed to the sale were representatives of the very folk it was said would benefit tells you all you need to know. There was no coherent, long- term plan for Wembley’s funds, not one that could be universally understood and approved.

No doubt when winter kicks in and local league postponements begin, it will be blamed on the rejection of Khan’s largesse. But there was no guarantee your pitch, your park, your league, your club, were going to prosper from this deal, no more than the grassroots nationwide — or even capital-wide — benefited from the london Olympic Games. So if your pitch remains a quagmire, do not presume the problem would have gone away if only Wembley had been sold. It would still have been a lottery.

The Football league, for instance, were insistent that their clubs should decide on a sizeable cut of the loot.

Yes, some of the same clubs they have spent the last few years fighting in court over financial incompetence.

Queens Park Rangers would suddenly be deemed capable custodians of grassroots finance, Birmingham City too. And what about some of those lovely Football league club owners? Would you trust the Oyston family at Blackpool to do what is best for the area, or the executive team at Charlton?

So while much will be made of an opportunity missed, do not take the sales pitch at face value. That is what turned off so many of the FA Council men at last week’s meeting — that what they were given in their dealings with the FA was not an independent appraisal of the deal’s pros and cons, but a hard sell — right down to the threat from Mark Burrows, the chief financial officer, that a £ 72million repair bill will be incurred over the next six years unless Wembley is sold.

Burrows said the first £18m of it will be due next year, but the Council members are not that daft. They’ve been to Wembley. They’ve been to quite a few grounds.

If it was said Old Trafford needed a £20m injection in the next 12 months, for instance, they might agree. The redevelopment at Manchester United is beginning to show its age.

But Wembley? It isn’t perfect, but it isn’t bad. The idea that it is falling apart just sounded like one more desperately overplayed hand.

Anyway, this was always about more than noughts on a cheque. It was about english football having a home, spiritually and literally. Not one that prioritises the Jacksonville Jaguars in the autumn, not one in which a private owner calls the shots. There is a reason UeFA favour Wembley, a reason lionel Messi — like many from beyond these isles — raises his game, a reason so many football people fought so hard to stop it crumbling to the ground. This is not

just any football stadium. It is part of national history and, in that way, while it belongs to the FA it still belongs to us all. Once it is Khan’s it is his. You can’t sell something and keep it.

As West ham have discovered, there can be no guarantees as tenants. Khan’s statement announcing his withdrawal yesterday spoke of ‘ bringing people together’ as a motivation — but let’s not kid ourselves. he’s a businessman, this was a business transaction. Owning the world’s most iconic football stadium was not an action motivated by charity.

One look at the area around Wembley shows the catastrophe of losing control of real estate. Slowly, the great stadium is being walled in by high rise flats and student accommodation. each month another chunk disappears from view.

It was short- sighted in the extreme to allow this to happen, but at least the jewel in the crown is preserved and visible once we pick our way through the building sites. Future generations will still be able to dream of playing at the national stadium.

For all the talk of Wembley losing its glamour, england could not even sell out the King Power Stadium in leicester last month. The delights of taking the national team on the road has always been a myth.

Wembley is england’s home. And if not every great World Cup nation possesses a national football stadium then that makes it more special, not less.

And now we shall see. If Khan (left), or anyone, comes in with an improved offer, it merely confirms that Wembley was being sold on the cheap in the first place.

And if any further offers are reduced, there is even less need to consider them. There are many ways to fund grassroots football in this country — Gary Neville proposed a levy on inflationary agents’ fees, which could be a start — but selling the heart and soul of the english game is no longer among them. Nor should it ever have been.

There was no coherent plan for spending the funds