‘Extremely concerned’ Millwall will have to consider relocating outside of Lewisham if CPO is confirmed, admits Steve Kavanagh

Richard Parry7 January 2017

Millwall chief executive Steve Kavanagh admits that the football club will have to consider the ‘unthinkable’ and relocate from the London borough of Lewisham if the council sells the land outside their ground.

A decision will be made in a council meeting on Wednesday as to whether a compulsory purchase order of land surrounding the Den.

At present, it appears that the CPO will be granted with the land set to be sold to developers Renewal.

The site has been home to Millwall since 1910, before the then Den stadium was redeveloped in 1993 with the new arena retaining the same name.

Speaking to London Live’s Reya El-Salahi, the club’s chief executive admitted that they would have to consider relocating the club outside of Lewisham if the CPO is confirmed next week.

Kavanagh said: “In the event that the CPO is confirmed then we have to consider every option and I was asked the question ‘would we consider relocating’ and the answer is we’d have to consider everything, so yes we would have to consider that.

“That would have implications for the fans, and more importantly for the borough [of Lewisham] and the community we’ve lived in since 1910.

“I’m not ruling anything out,” added Kavanagh. “We are extremely concerned by the process that’s taking place and if this carries on, and if this is confirmed next Wednesday then we will start to look at plans as to whether it’s viable for us to stay here of whether we should consider a life elsewhere after all the time we’ve been here.”

The decision to force the League One club to sell pockets of land around their stadium was adjourned last month until January 11.

Millwall take on Premier League side AFC Bournemouth at the Den on Saturday in the FA Cup third round.

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