Chelsea offer £11 million a year to use Wembley

A presentation has been made to the Wembley Stadium board by club officials and the deal would be for three seasons.

Chelsea, who potentially would want to start using the national stadium from 2017-2018, may have to compete with Tottenham Hotspur. The North London club are also seeking a short-term home - and may need it for the same initial season - while their new stadium is built. But they would probably only need to rent Wembley for one campaign.

Their offer is believed to be about £8 million a year, according to The Times.

With more than one team interested, the Wembley board is under pressure to rent out the stadium. However, it is not believed to have made a decision yet because of the added complications that arranging other sporting and music events bring.

There is also a limit on the number of events that can be staged at the 90,000-seat venue per year. However, this is only for events where the crowd exceeds 50,800 so by closing the top tier, it can be worked around.

This makes sense. Surely it’s just a question of whether the Wembley board will give permission and if so, which club will be allowed to rent out the stadium.

It seems like a huge waste for it not to be used, with two huge clubs now queuing up to play there. This is particularly as Tottenham are also reportedly looking at using Stadium mk, which would be a 50-mile journey from North London.

If the disruption to local residents can be kept to a minimum, one of these clubs has to be allowed to rent out the national stadium.