Tottenham in talks to stage next season’s Champions League matches at Wembley, confirms FA chairman Greg Dyke
Chairman Greg Dyke yesterday confirmed that the Football Association is in negotiations with Tottenham over the north London club playing its Champions League matches at Wembley next season.
Spurs later released a statement affirming their intention to consider playing European games away from White Hart Lane in order to comply with Uefa stadium regulations. Next season there is likely to be a 4,000 reduction in their capacity due to preliminary work on their new ground.
Their dialogue with the FA forms part of a wider discussion about Spurs making the national stadium their temporary base during the 2017/18 campaign while their new £400m, 61,000-seater home at White Hart Lane is being built.
Wembley is thought to be the preferred option of Spurs chairman Daniel Levy, although a groundshare with MK Dons has also been under consideration.
“We’re in discussions about them playing their Champions League games there at Wembley next year but I don’t know much about that. On the full season, I think we’re quite close to a deal,” said Dyke.
“We’re certainly in discussions with Spurs that they should come in for a full season when they’re re-building their stadium. We’re a long way down the path with reaching an agreement.”
Chelsea have also expressed an interest in moving to Wembley while they rebuild Stamford Bridge – a £500m development that will see their capacity rise to 60,000 – although that would be for a three-year period and potentially mean a one-season share with Spurs.
“Chelsea have really exciting plans for that stadium, to demolish the whole thing and a build a new one on the existing site. If they came, that would mean coming for three years,” added Dyke.
“We thought we had a responsibility to English football, if we can fit them in. And of course we get some income out of it and that money we can use to support grassroots football but particularly to build more all-weather pitches.”