The Rugby Football Union has declared that Twickenham is not for sale at any price and ruled out the possibility of Chelsea playing at the home of English Rugby.
Fulham and Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan has made an offer for Wembley Stadium, which is being considered by the Football Association’s board, with an outline agreement already said to be in place.
RFU chief executive Steve Brown insists Twickenham will never be sold, in the process stressing there will be no football played at the ground, including by Chelsea when they look for a temporary home while Stamford Bridge is redeveloped.
“It’s not something that is on our radar and we have no consideration of selling Twickenham or even entertaining those thoughts. We haven’t been approached at all, either,” Brown said.
“We are committed to Rugby here – big and small. As well as the NFL. And at the moment, we don’t have any plans for football at all.
When pressed on the possibility of hosting Chelsea games, Brown said: “Just to be really clear – we have an arrangement and an agreement with the local authority that we will stick to the sports that I have mentioned. Football isn’t on our radar for this stadium.”
I don’t really see much of a downside to @FA selling Wembley. The old Wembley was never owned by the FA and we won the World Cup there. Bags of money going into grassroots is way more important than owning a load of concrete. 2 steps back, 39 steps forward.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) April 27, 2018
One of England’s four warm-up matches for next year’s Rugby World Cup – the opposition for which has yet to be finalised – is to be staged in either Manchester or Newcastle.
“We are looking between the north west and north east. Both present great situations and we have tested both in the World Cup,” Brown said.
“We had a fantastic response to the World Cup game in the north west. Lots of people want to buy a ticket – they just won’t have to pay as much for a hotel and train.”
Shahid Khan is planning to purchase Wembley.
Meanwhile the RFU believes that England will be able to take Brad Shields to South Africa under the umbrella of World Rugby’s regulation nine – which dictates that players must be released for international Rugby – if Jones decides to include him the squad he names on May 10.
Shields, the Wasps-bound Hurricanes captain, would use the Super Rugby break to begin a Test career made possible by his English parents amid an attempt from the New Zealand Rugby Union to prevent his involvement.
“Regulation nine is clear and understood by everybody. If we find ourselves in that situation (where there is a dispute with the NZRU) we will rely on the World Rugby regulation,” Brown said.
“I think we shouldn’t constrain ourselves from a performance perspective by not picking those players.”
