Fulham denied claims by a former exec that the club's owner wants to develop Craven Cottage into flats.GETTY IMAGES
EPL side Fulham reiterated its commitment to Craven Cottage after a former club exec claimed Owner Shahid Khan views the historic football ground as a "negative asset" and plans to develop the stadium into luxury riverside properties, according to Lawrence Ostlere of the London INDEPENDENT. According to former Fulham Assistant Dir of Football Craig Kline, Khan plans to move Fulham to Wembley and "will develop the 122-year-old Craven Cottage into flats" should his proposed £600M ($792M) purchase of the national stadium go ahead. After Khan's Wembley bid was made public in April, he promised, unprompted, that it would "have no impact on Craven Cottage as the home of FFC," but Kline claimed that Khan views the ground as a "negative asset" in one of the most expensive areas of London. Kline claimed that Khan's purchase of Fulham in July '13 was motivated by a long-term strategy to move his NFL franchise, the Jacksonville Jaguars, to London to "seize the initiative in the race into the NFL’s relatively untapped European market." Kline added that moving the Jags from Florida to the U.K. "remains his priority." But while the Jags' potential relocation is "no secret and has been widely reported," Kline's claims regarding the redevelopment of Craven Cottage are new and contradict Khan's April statement. In a statement made on behalf of Khan, the club said, "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" (INDEPENDENT, 10/10).
