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Topics: Manchester United, Wembley Stadium, Manchester City, Liverpool
Josh Lawless
Topics: Manchester United, Wembley Stadium, Manchester City, Liverpool
Manchester United have been tipped to make a massively controversial move to Wembley Stadium.
Old Trafford has been United's iconic home ground for 114 years and has so much history attached to it.
But the stadium is now extremely outdated and with a leaking roof that has resulted in opposition fans singing about 'The Theatre of Dreams' "falling down".
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Old Trafford requires a major upgrade and recent reports indicate that new shareholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe wants to transform the ground into 'the Wembley of the North'.
The Telegraph claim that the Ineos billionaire, who is in charge of all football operations, may try and convince UK government to help finance the rebuilding project, which may cost up to £2 billion.
It's said that Ratcliffe would prefer to remain close to the Old Trafford side, but with talk of a complete overhaul, ESPN journalist Mark Ogden has proposed that United play home games at Wembley Stadium while the potential redevelopment takes place.
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"I think for the long time gain, it's worth a short-term pain of maybe a year away from Manchester to play the games," he told BBC Radio Manchester.
"The audience for Man United is still huge despite the fact the team hasn't been very good for ten years.
"If the club were prepared to say, 'Look, for this one year of disruption, we'll put you on a coach to Wembley every other week' - for the rest of the next hundred years you've got a world-class stadium and maybe the best in the world, I think most United fans would take the one year hit of playing at Wembley.
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"The club would have to subsidise the fans to go there, they couldn't expect fans to go from Manchester to travel to Wembley at their own expense that wouldn't be fair."
Spurs played home games at Wembley for just over a season while the start-of-the-art arena was built, albeit the distance was nowhere near as substantial.
Ratcliffe and his team at Ineos have reportedly been in discussions with Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester and officials at Trafford Council regarding plans for a sport, entertainment and community village.