Gary Neville has called the proposed sale of Wembley Stadium to Fulham owner Shahid Khan “ridiculous.”
Neville said of Khans £600 million offer: “The FA feels to fund the grassroots programme, they have to sell a national asset — it’s quite simply ridiculous. This is nonsense.
“They are talking about an extra £70m a year for 20 years — that’s a pittance in football, it’s a pittance in government, it’s the price of a full-back.”
However, the FA maintains that the sale of Wembley would help them provide money for improvements to pitches nationwide, of which the association says only one in three at the grassroots level are up to par.
And Sports Minister Tracey Crouch, who also spoke at the DCMS hearing, moved to offset fears of the windfall not reaching those most in need of a “cash injection.”
Crouch said: “There will be legal guarantees about how the money is spent, absolutely. There will be protections in place.
“This cash injection means we can start to build the facilities and play good quality football to create better talent for the future.
“The government invested money into Wembley and we want to ensure that the public money is safeguarded.”
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