Martin Glenn insists there was no plot to thwart Wembley deal
Thursday 18 October 2018 19:33, UK
FA chief executive Martin Glenn insisted there was no plot to bring down any deal to sell Wembley Stadium from within the Football Association.
Fulham owner Shahid Khan withdrew a £600m offer for the national stadium that would have seen him move his NFL franchise, the Jacksonville Jaguars, to London.
There was speculation the FA Council, which is made up of 127 representatives from the Premier League, the Football League and county FAs, would have been unable to decide how best to spend the money.
But Glenn, who along with FA chairman Greg Clarke was in favour of the sale, insisted there was no plot to thwart the sale.
"You can't generalise about 127 individuals," he told the Evening Standard.
"The voting of the FA Council is stacked in favour of the amateur game, but the professional game has a golden share, so it can block anything it doesn't like.
"When you look at the CEOs of the FA counties, they were in favour of the deal.
"The more senior chairmen might be more sceptical, but there was nothing concerted about it. There was no plot, but what you have is a conservative group of people wary of change."
Glenn explained his track record since joining the FA in March 2015 was evidence a clear spending proposal had been put together, rejecting suggestions there was no plan in place for how to spend the £600m.
In his view, the reason for the sale not going through was that people simply did not want it to happen.
"The critics of the deal always cite the spending plans, claiming there were always more questions to be asked," he said. "That's very unfair. The proposal was really clear.
"So, when people say there wasn't a way to spend it intelligently, they are just wrong. They just didn't want the deal to happen."
Khan said he had intended to help strengthen the English game, but without a "definitive mandate" from the FA to sell Wembley, he would be withdrawing his offer.
However, Khan did not rule out a future attempt to purchase the stadium.
Sport England, sports minister Tracey Crouch and community football charity, the Football Foundation, all described Khan's decision as a missed opportunity.
Shadow sports minister Dr Rosena Allin-Khan has called on the government to do more to address problems at community level.
The MP for Tooting told Press Association Sport: "With the Wembley sale being called off, the question regarding how we invest significantly in grassroots football remains unanswered.
"The government must step up with a programme that commits to providing the funding necessary to evolve our grassroots."
