Fulham’s bid to return to Craven Cottage officially got underway as the club submitted their plans for local council scrutiny.
Mohamed Al Fayed’s club, who must leave QPR’s Loftus Road at the end of the season as it does not meet Premiership regulations, want to return to their traditional home next August.
The Cottagers axed plans for a £70million arena but now hope to erect temporary seats on terracing to create a 22,000-capacity ground, costing £5million.
Fulham have requested permission to use the seating for three years – by which time they hope to have purchased land near White City and built a state-of-the-art stadium.
Fulham chief executive Bruce Langham said: “The planning application to upgrade the Cottage to an all-seater stadium has been submitted to Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council.
“The application will now go through consultation and we hope to hear the outcome in early December.”
“In broad terms we are seeking to put temporary seating, fully covered at both ends of the ground and to add seating at the front of the Stevenage Road Stand.
We are also planning to put 3 temporary units on 3 corners of the ground which would allow us to increase the number of corporate hospitality facilities available.
Obviously all of this is subject to Planning Permission being granted and I would not want to go into any more detail until the planning process has run its course.”
