Millwall FC has written to Lewisham and Southwark councillors ahead of Wednesday’s meeting on whether to push through the compulsory purchase of land around The Den, to reconfirm the threat to the club’s academy.
Councillors were due to to vote on whether to approve the CPO at a meeting in December, which was adjourned after it was revealed Millwall could lose its Category Two youth academy status.
In a letter to both councils’ cabinet members, Millwall chief executive Steve Kavanagh said: “The club is very concerned you are being led to believe by [Lewisham] Council’s officers that the issues we have raised about the future of our youth academy have somehow been satisfactorily resolved. Sadly, this is not the case.”
He adds the potential loss of its current academy status “will mean depriving young people of opportunities which are unlikely to be replicated elsewhere”.
Kavanagh has urged council officers to take up the club’s invitation to meet and “discuss these critical issues” ahead of this week’s meeting.
Millwall Community Trust have also written to cabinet members saying it has no “long-term viable future within the proposed arrangements” that would see it moved from its current location in the Lions Centre.
It also references a letter received from Renewal, which would buy the land if the CPO is passed, in which the property developer suggests any issues have been resolved. MCT states, “This could not be further from the truth.”