Steve Bruce tells talkSPORT: Wembley sale is fine, as long as the FA invest in grassroots football
Steve Bruce has admitted the potential sale of Wembley Stadium to Shahid Khan is no bad thing, as long as the Football Association invest the money made from the sale back in grassroots football.
Khan, the Fulham and Jacksonville Jaguars owner, was revealed to have made an offer for England’s national stadium on Thursday.
The American will pay around two-thirds of the £900m fee, with the rest of the amount made up by the Club Wembley hospitality packages which the FA will continue to oversee.
Reports suggest the FA will reinvest some of the profit made on the sale back into English football, with much of the focus on the game at the grassroots level.
And Bruce, the Aston Villa manager, has suggested the sale of Wembley is actually okay if the money is invested back into deprived areas of the country which don’t even have basic facilities to play the beautiful game.
“Well it’s a great debate,” Bruce said on the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast.
“I think the big key in all of it is: what are they going to do with the money and how are they going to invest it?
“If they put it into grassroots, which is badly needed in our country… We haven’t got the facilities for the younger players to play - of course we have at the elite level - but a lot of people in deprived areas at grassroots need looking it.
“There’s no question Wembley is something a bit special; I’ve been privileged to go to an FA Cup final a few years ago with Hull and it really is a good day out for everybody concerned.
“There are obviously things in the contract which you can protect, such as England playing their big games there… and I wouldn’t say it’s a bad thing for England to play friendlies around the country.
“You protect the big games, rent it… does it really matter if things are in place who owns it?
“If you’ve got the FA Cup final there, big England games there; you protect those rights and I think it’s not a bad thing.”