Back to the Cottage have demanded answers after the revelation that Fulham owner Mohamed Al-Fayed had struck a deal to sell Craven Cottage to property developers.
Fulham finally publicly pulled the plug on their redevelopment plans for the club’s historic home in a club statement on Monday claiming ‘to invest heavily in building a stadium which would only generate revenue, at most, once a week is not a financially viable option’. Back to the Cottage, responding to reports in the Guardian that disclosed that the agreement to sell the Cottage to newly constituted company Fulham River Projects was reached in September, called for Al-Fayed to come clean about his intentions for the ground.
The club’s statement referenced the costs of redeveloping the ground had now “spiralled out of all proportion” and that progressing with the current plans would now cost more than £100m. The statement continued: “To saddle the club with this magnitude of debt would be foolhardy in the extreme and could seriously jeopardise the long term future of the club. Accordingly, we are pursuing more sensible options.”
But Fulham refused to specify what the ‘more sensible options’ were citing ‘a number of delicate and complicated issues involved which must be conducted with the utmost discretion and under the most confidential of terms’.
Back to the Cottage have hit back – highlighting that Fulham’s statement has failed to address a number of questions published on their website and sent to the club following press reporting over the past month. They include the following:
- Why has the recently departed new stadium director not been replaced?
- Why has the consultants’ report not been made available to fans?
- What are the alternative options?
- Where is the evidence for the costs spiralling out of control?
- Does the club still intend to redevelop the Craven Cottage site?
- Does the club stand by its previous commitment not to relocate Fulham Football Club outside the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham?
Back to the Cottage spokesman Tom Greatrex said: “Unless and until these questions are satisfactorily answered, the level of trust Fulham fans have in the club will deteriorate. We left Craven Cottage last season with the promise that, after redevelopment, Fulham Football Club would return to its historic riverside home. The chairman has a responsibility to keep that promise or risk permanently souring the special bond that exists between him and true Fulham fans.
Moving away from Fulham puts the very future of the club in doubt. Such action will not be in the interests of fans, but, crucially, will also not be in the business interests of Mr Al Fayed and the board.”
