Owners vote no to club’s bid to buy land freehold

The Blues have failed to convince shareholders to vote in favour to sell Stamford Bridge’s freehold.

To be able to get the go ahead a vote of 75% was needed, but having only received 61.6% the proposal has fallen through.

Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck was naturally disappointed with the outcome but understands why the CPO voted as they did. 

He told the club’s official website: 

“Obviously we are disappointed but we recognise and we respect totally that the shareholders of Chelsea Pitch Owners have spoken. We will meet with Mr Abramovich and the rest of the board and we will decide what action, if any, we will take going forward.

“I don’t view this as an us and against you, we against they situation. We are all Chelsea fans and I can only hope that on Saturday we can get together and support this club and beat Arsenal.”

The decision to attempt to buy back the land was seen as a sign of the club wanting to move away from Stamford Bridge to a new stadium in London. 

The group known as ‘Say No CPO’ who keen not to sell as they were not happy with the new agreements if Chelsea decided to move to a new stadium away from Stamford Bridge. 

The Blues had sold the land to the CPO in the 1990s, this ensured that the club were not made homeless.

By Scott Balaam

Twitter @AStamBridge2Far