When rumours emerged that the English football association were looking into the possibility of selling Wembley Stadium to Shahid Khan, many were left wondering why the association would be willing to part with ownership of a facility so much time, effort and money was put into.
At a cost of £757 million in total, the Wembley Stadium rebuild occurred a little over ten years ago.
However, according to an article in The Telegraph, their reasons for selling have now become a little bit clearer.
Although the money they would receive from Khan is certainly a factor, it now appears that the FA have had a fire-fighting job with a serious health risk that has afflicted the stadium due to some shoddy workmanship.
It has emerged that roof panels on the stadium were wrongly installed, and, as a result, have been at constant risk of falling down.
With one fallen panel already found during a routine check of the stadium on a non-match day, the report clarifies how the FA had to install netting underneath the roof to insure nobody was potentially injured:
The FA board decided in Sept 2013 that it needed to take precautionary measures against the problem which dates back to the stadium’s opening in 2007 when it was discovered that roof panels had been wrongly installed.
This wasn't even the extent of the problems faced by the FA:
There were also major issues with leakages of water in the Royal Box, known internally as the Wembley Suite, where key guests of the FA are entertained, including the Duke of Cambridge, who is the president of the governing body.
With Tottenham Hotspur (and potentially Chelsea) using the facility while awaiting the rebuild of their own stadium, it is perhaps less of a shock that the FA are so open to the idea of selling on their prized asset.
