Back Wembley sale! Shahid Khan’s stadium bid is for the ‘good of the game’ says Sports Minister Tracey Crouch

Sports Minister Tracey Crouch has called on wavering FA Council members to get behind the Wembley Stadium sale when they vote next week.

The future of the iconic venue and its potential £600million sale to Fulham owner Shahid Khan will be voted upon next Wednesday by the council’s 127 members, with the outcome hanging in the balance.

But Crouch, who also said she is prepared to back a bid to jointly host the 2030 World Cup with Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland if the FA believe it is feasible, told Standard Sport: “This is a decision for the FA Council to make and I hope that they will see the long-term benefit of it. We would look to be in favour of the sale. I hope they take a long-term strategic approach to it.”

Under the FA proposal to sell the venue to American Khan, who is also owner of NFL franchise Jacksonville Jaguars, football’s governing body have said they will channel the money raised by the sale into revolutionising grassroots facilities and pitches.

They claim that over the next 20 years, the investment into grassroots football could reach as much as £1.5billion, with added financial backing.

But there is a reluctance among some members of the council, which is made up of representatives of the Premier League, the Football League and county FAs, to sell what has been described as the governing body’s “crown jewels”.

Crouch, though, defended the potential sale and tried to allay the fears of doubters within the FA Council.

“The FA didn’t own [Wembley] until 25 years ago or so,” she said. “They didn’t own it in 1966 [when England won the World Cup there] and it was an iconic venue then. Plus, very few national sports organisations own their stadia.

“We have to make sure that public funding is returned and the right protections are in place to make sure that Wembley doesn’t get lost in the way, that it’s the national stadium.

“The protection will make sure that it is still the iconic national stadium and still ensure that World Cup and Uefa games would be played there. It would go ahead with any formal bid for [the] 2030 [World Cup]. Wembley would very much be part of that.”

The FA Council met last week to discuss the proposal, which was described as “a healthy discussion”. Of concern to some councillors was the maintenance costs of new facilities.

Both England manager Gareth Southgate and Howard Wilkinson, a key figure behind the building of St George’s Park, the FA’s national football centre, spoke at the meeting about the positives of the move.

For Crouch, that lies in the grassroots benefit. “This is not just about new artificial pitches, but the maintenance of current grass pitches,” she said.

“We’ve all seen images over the winter months of pitches that are unplayable. I’ve seen kids wandering around in mud unable to kick a ball. We want to see changes in that, and the beneficiaries here is the game of football and its whole pathway.”