Chelsea could move to Premier League rivals and rugby stadium while Stamford Bridge is rebuilt
Chelsea could ground-share with west London rivals Fulham and play big games at Twickenham Stadium while the club’s new owners press ahead with plans to rebuild Stamford Bridge.
Blues chairman Todd Boehly has informally approached his fellow American Shad Khan, the Fulham chairman, about moving the majority of home games to Craven Cottage, according to reports.
And Chelsea chiefs have also enquired with the Rugby Football Union about staging European ties and bigger domestic fixtures at Twickenham, reports the Mail on Sunday.
Wembley, which hosted all of Tottenham Hotspur’s home matches while they built their new stadium, is thought to be an alternative to Twickenham.
Chelsea are expected to need to move out of Stamford Bridge for four years if they decide to knock it down and build a new stadium.
They are said to want a capacity of at least 60,000 and are ready to knock down all four stands and lay the pitch below ground level in order to do achieve that.
Boehly’s consortium pledged an extra £1.75bn to stadium and squad costs on top of the £2.5bn purchase price when they bought the club from Roman Abramovich last year.
Abramovich received planning permission for an ambitious and striking redevelopment of Stamford Bridge but put the plans on ice in 2018 after the UK delayed renewing his visa.