Chelsea dealt stadium blow as council approves alternative Earl's Court plan

The Blues have been at their current ground, which holds just over 40,000 fans, since 1877 and for the time being, they are not going anywhere. Indeed, Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly previously said that he expects the club to move to a new stadium in the future but it is a "really complex" situation. 

He said in March: "Inside of London it's really complex. It's not like we are building something in a rural environment. We have a lot of constituents to make sure we care about. Certainly, the Chelsea fan base is one of them. Long term, I think we're going to build something new, and I think we'll figure it out."

The American may not have envisaged this recent turn of events, however.

According to The Athletic, Hammersmith and Fulham council approved proposals for a separate development, and not Chelsea's, on the site of the old Earls Court Exhibition Centre. The Earls Court Development Company confirmed the news in a statement on Thursday morning, saying the 44-acre, £10 billion ($13b) masterplan will "transform central London’s largest cleared development site".

They added that this development will create around 4,000 homes and 12,000 jobs and that: "This first milestone paves the way for ECDC to work with partners across the public and private sectors to move forwards with plans to start on site as soon as possible."

The ECDC's plans do not include a football stadium like the one Chelsea desires. However, the aforementioned development still has to go through multiple stages, such as authorities in Kensington and Chelsea, before getting the go-ahead.

This stadium relocation hurdle has been on the cards for months but now it is becoming more concrete with this development. Incidentally, under former Blues owner Roman Abramovich, the club secured planning permission for a 60,000-seater ground on the Stamford Bridge site but the build never took place due to complications over the Russian's visa. Fast forward to earlier this year, and despite Boehly and fellow co-owner Behdad Eghbali, the founder of Clearlake Capital, appearing to have their disagreements about the Blues' direction of travel, the former says that won't be an issue with stadium plans.

He said earlier this year: "We have been aligned on what we are trying to do and build. It’s a team that’s young. It’s a team that’s got long contracts. And all these things were new, and to do all these things we have done it’s obviously because we are aligned. So if you look at what is actually happening and don’t follow the shiny lights you will see there is core stability and there has been a long-time theme. And I think we are executing on a plan that ultimately will have Chelsea where it belongs. I mean we are sitting top four right now. I think the status quo is just fine. We have learned from each other and I think we are going to be able to work it out any which way. We have to think about long term what we are trying to accomplish. We have a big stadium development opportunity that we have to flesh out, and I think that’s where we either align or ultimately decide to go our different ways. But what has been written and talked about has much more drama than what has actually happened."

Aside from this off-the-field blow, Chelsea's players and head coach, Enzo Maresca, will be focusing on building on their superb 3-0 Champions League win over Barcelona in midweek when they host local rivals and Premier League leaders Arsenal in a top-of-the-table clash on Sunday.