England Set To Sell Wembley Stadium To Pakistani Billionaire

The England Football Association, FA, has confirmed it has received an offer to buy Wembley stadium from Pakistani-American billionaire Shahid Khan, the owner of Fulham and the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars.

The FA board discussed the approach at a meeting on Thursday.

“We can confirm the FA has received an offer to buy Wembley Stadium,” an FA spokesperson said.

It is understood Khan’s bid offered around £600m to purchase the national stadium and under the deal the FA would retain the rights to Club Wembley, its debenture and hospitality business, understood to be worth around £300m.

“I am very pleased to learn today that The Football Association board of directors received our offer to purchase Wembley Stadium, our home away from home in London, from the FA,” said Khan in a statement.

The 90,000-seat stadium, which is the largest in the United Kingdom, cost £757m to build and opened in 2007.

Wembley stadium currently is the home of Tottenham and there are concerns the new deal would affect them, but NFL said the potential purchase would not affect the deal they have in place with the Spurs to stage NFL games at their new ground.

“Tandem with our 10-year partnership with Tottenham Hotspur, this new relationship would allow for even greater flexibility in scheduling future NFL games in London.” NFL explained.

Tottenham have played their home Premier League games at Wembley this season while work on White Hart Lane takes place.