The Stamford Bridge Issue- Chelsea’s long term project to redevelop their stadium did not start as planned due to their financial restrictions. Now the date for the planning permission is expiring on March 31. Chelsea issued a statement regarding this saying, “Chelsea Football Club acknowledges that the planning permission we obtained for a new stadium expires on 31st March 2020. We are grateful to all our fans and stakeholders, especially Hammersmith & Fulham Council, for their patience and understanding in the matter. We will continue to consider our options for a new stadium, should economic conditions improve.”
Since Roman Abramovich took over the Blues in 2003, Chelsea marked their status in the World of football with major success. The blues have won 16 major trophies in 16 years till now and that speaks how much influence the current owner has had in Chelsea’s history. In the last decade or so, Chelsea Football Club has been one of the best clubs in European football. However, their home stadium is not famous for it’s class that much. It has a capacity of only 41,631 and that doesn’t justify the level, Chelsea has at the moment.
Rivals Arsenal and Tottenham, both the clubs have redeveloped their stadiums to a bigger capacity already. Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is currently the biggest stadium in London after Wembley with a capacity of 62,062. Emirates Stadium of Arsenal is behind that rank with a 60,000+ capacity. But, after being one of the most successful clubs of England in recent times, Chelsea’s stadium is not world-class and even many Chelsea supporters would agree with this.
The west London club was thinking to shift their home temporarily to Wembley stadium or to Twickenham Stadium to redevelop Stamford Bridge but that plan failed. The club issued a statement in 2018 saying, “Chelsea Football Club announces today that it has put its new stadium project on hold.”
“No further pre-construction design and planning work will occur. The club does not have a time frame set for reconsideration of its decision. The decision was made due to the current unfavourable investment climate.”
This season Chelsea’s home form has been below average. They have lost or drawn more games than they have won at Stamford Bridge this season, which is never a good sign for any top club. They will surely want to change that in the seasons to follow.
Lampard’s boys are still in the fourth position at the moment and the Premier League is suspended till 30th April. Chelsea was banned from signing new players this season after they were handed a transfer ban for two consecutive windows after breaching Uefa’s rule of signing Under 18 players.
The ban was lifted before January but the blues did not sign anyone in the Winter window as well. Lampard will be handed a £200m transfer kitty in the next summer and that will be crucial for some of the youths that are playing in the first team regularly this term. The Chelsea boss gave Premier League debut to eight youngsters from the Chelsea academy already but next season their chances will be less.
