FA investigation into allegations about Fulham will not delay Wembley vote

Allegations of malpractice made against Fulham by their former assistant director of football, Craig Kline, were raised as a potential barrier to the Football Association selling Wembley to the club’s owner, Shahid Khan, at an FA council meeting on Thursday.

In the meeting to consider whether to sell the stadium to Khan for £600m, which was described by the FA as “a healthy discussion”, the chairman, Greg Clarke, was asked if Kline’s allegations could block the deal.

The FA has said it is “reviewing” the allegations, which Kline has said publicly involve “systemic corruption, child endangerment and exploitation, and fraud” which he witnessed during his time at Fulham between 2014-17. Kline, who is understood to have agreed a settlement to leave the club last November, approached the FA last week and on Monday met one of the governing body’s senior governance investigators, to whom he made a statement.

After Kline went public with his allegations on Twitter this week, Jim Woodcock, a spokesman for Khan, who also owns the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team, responded by saying: “This is nothing more than the same ongoing nonsense and bogus claims made by a former employee who left the club in 2017. Nothing here merits a further response.”

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Clarke, who with the FA’s chief executive, Martin Glenn, is supporting the sale of Wembley to Khan so the proceeds can be invested in improving grassroots facilities, is understood to have told the council the two processes are being considered separately. An FA investigation into Fulham, which will be undertaken if the review finds Kline’s allegations serious enough, would not delay the council’s vote on 24 October about whether to approve the sale.

Kline said: “I believe it would be unacceptable to everybody concerned with the sale of Wembley if a full FA investigation of my allegations is not carried out as part of the vetting process.”

The final decision on whether to sell the stadium to Khan, who wants Wembley as a London and European TV timezone base for the NFL, will be taken by the FA board after the council votes. The board has said it wants from the council a “significant majority” which has not been numerically defined, as that will indicate wide support for the deal across football’s constituencies. An FA survey of 22,500 people, including grassroots players, officials and coaches and 8,000 members of the public, did find 45% of respondents opposed to the sale of Wembley, while 38% were supportive and 17% neutral.

One council insider described the meeting as broadly supportive of selling the stadium, with many councillors persuaded that the proceeds, which Glenn has said could reach £1bn with matched funding could transform dilapidated facilities nationwide. A group of councillors is understood to have argued the FA does need to keep its own iconic stadium, whose £757m rebuilding it largely financed and has mostly now repaid, at great cost. Clarke and Glenn have pointed out that other countries’ football associations do not own their own national stadium.

Other councillors are said to have been keen to be clear about the detail, both of the commercial deal itself – the FA is retaining the lucrative Club Wembley income and guaranteed matches under the outline agreement with Khan – and how the proceeds will flow to the grassroots.

Khan wrote to all councillors on 5 October, giving assurances Wembley would remain England’s national football stadium and that he does not intend to move Fulham there. He said he is committed to keeping the club at Craven Cottage, where a renovation of the Riverside stand is due to begin in May.

He released a statement which read: “I appreciate the time and consideration of the FA Council today in its review of my Wembley Stadium proposal. As I’ve expressed in writing to the FA Board and members of the FA Council, an agreement will provide exceptional opportunities to invest in the game while ensuring Wembley Stadium will forever be the national stadium of England, the undisputed home of English football and unquestionably one of the finest venues in the world.

“I am committed to a partnership with the FA that will realise longtime resources for and benefits to the game and an extraordinary experience for all who will play in or visit Wembley for many years to come. In that spirit, I look forward to continuing to work with the FA Board, FA Council, Sport England, the mayor of London’s office and DCMS in the weeks ahead.”