Sorry Gareth, you are wrong on Wembley sale

GARETH SOUTHGATE came out in favour of the sale of Wembley last week. Leaving aside the fact that the gentleman the FA wanted to sell it to has just overseen Fulham’s relegation in the first week of April, having been Europe’s third biggest spenders in the summer transfer window, the England manager’s argument seemed to miss a crucial point about tenancy. ‘We were tenants in 1996 and that was a brilliant tournament,’ Southgate (right) said. Yes, but England didn’t feel like tenants in 1996. Wembley, leased or not, was home and wholly associated with English football, its biggest matches, its greatest occasions. That wasn’t how it was going to be had this most recent sale gone through. Once Wembley became home to the Jacksonville Jaguars, once the national team had to be shunted around the country to accommodate the NFL, once the new owner could rent it out however he chose, England would be adrift. There are other ways of funding grass roots football, without sacrificing the national stadium. Leasehold Wembley in 1996 was very different to what was being proposed.