Fulham owner Shahid Khan has withdrawn his offer to buy London’s Wembley Stadium, England’s governing Football Association announced Wednesday.
The FA, Wembley’s current owners, had come under fire from many within English football for their plans to sell Wembley despite Khan offering to buy the stadium for £600 million ($800 million).
And while senior FA figures were happy for the sale to go through that lack of support from the wider game appeared crucial to the decision of Khan, who had planned to base the Jacksonville Jaguars, his NFL franchise at Wembley, to pull out.
“Shahid Khan has informed us today that he will be withdrawing his offer to buy the stadium – and we fully respect his decision,” said FA chief executive Martin Glenn in a statement.
“Mr Khan believed that his offer to buy Wembley Stadium would release funds to help improve community football facilities in England and that it would be well received by all football stakeholders.”
Glenn, however, added: “At a recent meeting with Mr Khan he expressed to us that, without stronger support from within the game, his offer is being seen as more divisive than it was anticipated to be and has decided to withdraw his proposal.”
