Wembley Stadium- is this another step down the road to ruination?

Wembley Stadium- is this another step down the road to ruination?

One day we knew it would happen but were never quite sure when that day would be. In a world of multi media, social media communication and sometimes frantic double and triple speak, we feared the worst but probably felt that the traditional national home for football and rugby league from time to time, would fall under the spell of commercialism and brash materialism.

For the last couple of days or so Wembley Stadium has been the central character in the most serious of West End plays. Wembley Stadium, if the rumours are correct, is about to be sold off to the highest bidder. The jewel in the crown of English football will no longer be regarded as the ultimate destination for those who harbour dreams of winning the FA Cup. It could, allegedly, become a  heavily sponsored football stadium, not exactly an advertiser's dream come true but potentially the next high profile venue for American football.

A gentleman who goes by the name of Shahid Khan who owns an American football team called Jacksonville Jaguars and a share in Fulham football club, is believed to be at the centre of an audacious bid to grab the keys of Wembley Stadium. The figure is rumoured to be one billion pounds which in modern terms may sound like chicken feed. But for those of us who still consider Wembley to be almost the most precious asset in sporting mythology it does feel like the comparatively new Wembley has become irrevocably dragged into a cattle market where the auction price becomes the only concern.

But oh how did it ever come to this? How on earth did one of  our most desirable of national treasures find itself trapped in some very emotional firesale? This of course is the age of the quick buck, mind blowing millions and billions of pounds slowly eroding the moral and spiritual fabric of the national game, the game we've always loved, looked forward to, dreaded at times, resigned ourselves to when the chips were down or when it looked as if we would be on the threshold of victory.

The truth of course that in these cliche ridden times football was never like this in the old days. Little could Johnny Haynes have known when he became the proud recipient of the first £100 wage packet, that well over 50 years later that the game he knew and respected, would be the unwitting victim of football's crazy, zany obsession with vast sums of money. It is a game where obscenely rewarded players lick their lips at the  ludicrously mammoth millions of pounds in their bank balances.

Wembley Stadium is now the ongoing focus of our attention, suddenly thrust into the spotlight of perhaps its most unwelcome sight. Can it be true that American football may well become the potential new owners of English football's greatest football arena? Will those giant helmeted men with thick padded shoulders and muscular arms the size of Florida real estate, finally inherit the English earth? It does seem that the powers that be at FA headquarters may be powerless to stop the torrent of money about to land on its doorstep. This could be the first step down the road to ruination for the national stadium and for  England's devoted fans this could mean disaster. But fear not it could all work out superbly and we're probably worrying for no reason whatsoever.

Throughout the ages Wembley Stadium, both old and new, has witnessed the full gamut of emotions, tears of grief, laughter, demonstrative managers, equally as emotional players and the FA Cup Final in the May showpiece at the end of the season. It is that grand, palatial footballing theatre where the main protagonists look for their day in the sun, their quest for fame and celebrity. It may be their one, and possibly only opportunity, of a lifetime to hold aloft the metaphorical pot of gold.

Now though it looks as if Wembley Stadium may just be sharing the same stage with those bullish, beefy and  belligerent American football players, growling, scowling, barging and shoving their way to thrilling touchdowns and a place in  American footballing history. It could well be the place where gritty gridiron comes head to head with good, old fashioned, pulsating English end to end football where cheerleading American glitz and glamour collides with the cut and thrust of the Premier League.

What we do have though as a proposal is an English national team whose stadium may well be at the heart of a money spinning revolution. Realistically this massive windfall could well be of huge long term benefit to the game at every level of the game and that has to be good news. We now know that the game could be offered a kings ransom for all the right reasons. Football's youthful schoolchildren, often the most important source of concern, might be the ones to gain most handsomely if Shahid Khan gets his way.

There was even the amusing suggestion that Khan might have been considering moving Fulham into Wembley Stadium. Some would regard this as just a humorous musical hall joke but the Cottagers did have rather a famous wartime comedian by the name of Tommy Trinder so this may not be a complete absurdity. Besides, Fulham did have some very lucky fans and they were in the Premier League until a couple of seasons ago. Realistically though Fulham may have to content themselves with life by the River Thames. Craven Cottage always did seem much more homely.

So here we are on in the high tech, deeply enlightened world of 2108 and Wembley Stadium. the stadium that meant so much to so many thousands and millions of footballers throughout the years, could be about to be overtaken by one of the richest men in the world. Can football ever be able to bring itself to be present at the Burger King National Stadium, or the KFC Chicken National Stadium, the Coca Cola National Stadium or quite appallingly, the Mcdonald's National Stadium. Of course the rationale is simple and nobody for a minute would ever dream or begrudge football its commercial endorsements, of feathering its nest, its inordinate wealth nor its pursuit of lifelong financial security.

As somebody though who has followed the Beautiful Game for many years, witnessing both its ups and downs while always keeping an eye on its future, you fear that one day football's continued welfare will be permanently jeopardised and damaged by the greedy corporate world where only substantial profit margins matter. The fear is that football will eventually sink into a world of pampered affluence, a product and commodity rather than the sporting festival which it has always been.

There is now a frightening recognition of where the national stadium may find itself in say 20 years time. The optimists will tell us that nobody could take Wembley out of the hands of its devoted supporters, that body of men, women, children and families who have given so much unqualified care, attention and love to it over the years. But the indications are that all that will be changing quite shortly with the arrival of a new generation, a potentially difficult and challenging climate within the game and of course hardened scepticism from those who believe Wembley will never ever be the same again.

And so I leave you with this thought. On the day the England national team won the 1966 World Cup Final against West Germany there were very few present that day at the old Wembley who thought that the Wembley they'd become totally enamoured of, would one day sacrifice itself to multi billionaires, an American football franchise and an American money maker whose modest English football club whose home nestled by the Thames. It must have seemed like some fantastic dreamscape, an advertising pipe- dream, some futuristic novel where spacecraft come down to Earth and aliens rule the world. Still, it may be happening.

I can still see Jack Charlton dropping to his knees when the 1966 World Cup Final whistle went for full time, Bobby Charlton holding his head in shocked disbelief, Bobby Moore, smiling and angelic, Nobby Stiles, shirt flapping and dancing deliriously around the old Wembley as if it were yesterday. There was an exhausted  Geoff Hurst bending forward, staring around the old stadium as if he'd just been given the keys to the Promised Land and barely able to believe what he'd just seen.

You could call me a romantic fool and maybe the accusation could be true but there is something about this life changing moment for Wembley Stadium that fills me with fear and spine chilling trepidation. What will happen if the Jacksonville Jaguars are joined by the Pittsburgh Steelers? What next? Will Wembley become the regular host to Stars and Stripes American flags with forests of waving red, white and blue banners or will it simply be known as that uplifting FA Cup Final venue where the dreamers and fantasists blend in with those hard bitten pragmatists?

 These are the teams who just want to win the FA Cup because it could be the difference between survival, a new stand or never to be heard of again. For as long as anybody can remember Wembley was that lush light green carpet of grass where Bob Stokoe gleefully hopped, skipped and jumped onto the pitch in his natty coat and hat after Second Division Sunderland had just beaten high flying Leeds United. It is the stadium where Sir Bobby Robson finally got his just desserts after his Ipswich Town had won the FA Cup when the old First Division League Championship had agonisingly slipped from his hands in one notable season.

There was the day when on a sun lit afternoon in 1976 the six foot giant known as Lawrie Mcmenemy smiled warmly for the cameras as his hugely underrated Southampton had upset all odds with a 1-0 victory against Tommy Docherty's Manchester United, supposedly upper class or middle class opponents depending on your point of view.

Who could ever forget the day when two Argentinian players simply won the hearts of the Spurs faithful with quite the most complete of Cup Final performances in 1981? After a dull and uninspiring first game on the Saturday both Osvaldo Ardilles and Ricky Villa returned to Wembley on the following Thursday for a replay to rejoice in. Villa would score the most remarkable solo goal Wembley had ever seen, slaloming his way around perplexed Manchester City defenders, twisting and turning before scoring one of the finest goals ever seen in any FA Cup Final.

Now of course the new Wembley must face its immediate future in the hopefully safe hands of new owners, with the intriguing prospect of American football team and confident in the knowledge that those who genuinely care about it will continue to be regarded with the same kind of respect that those the world over have always seen it. For those who live in a happy-go- lucky corner called Jacksonville this could be the beginning of something that's much bigger than they could ever have hoped for.