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Outlining Fulhams vision for a training ground fit for the future

Next year will mark a quarter of a century since Fulham moved to Motspur Park. The club’s training ground was bought by former owner Mohamed Al Fayed in 1999, and it has since become a staple of the Premier League era. From Jean Tigana to Roy Hodgson and now Marco Silva, all have worked their magic here, building teams that have created memories at Craven Cottage.

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Motspur Park has a long history. The running track, which is now long gone, saw English athlete Sydney Wooderson break the mile world record in August 1937 with a time of 4min 6.4sec. In 1981, it was used during the production of the film Chariots of Fire.

And while the 1920s character of the main building remains, Motspur Park has undergone significant redevelopment and investment over the years and is now very much a Premier League operation. In 2012, the club attained Category 1 academy status, reflecting not only the quality of coaching and strategic development at youth level, but also the facilities.

But for all of its history and charm, it is starting to feel a little on the small side for a club with Fulham’s ambitions.

Motspur Park today has multiple users. It hosts all of the academy age groups, the women’s team, and the numerous sides that fall under the remit of the Fulham Foundation. In total, more than 200 members of the club’s staff work there too.

fulham foundation Motspur Park is used by more than just Fulham’s first team (Photo: Joe Giddens – PA Images via Getty Images)

Accommodating everyone is a challenge, and as a result, Fulham lease 6.9 hectares (69,000 square metres) of pitches from the London School of Economics, at their grounds in nearby New Malden, Surrey. A lack of available land means expanding Motspur Park is not possible, and redevelopment is also limited by the fact the clubhouse is listed locally. In short, more space is required if Fulham are to modernise. 

This is why Fulham owner Shahid Khan (top image) purchased the former BBC Sports Ground in June 2017, with a view to expanding the club’s facilities. The site is based across the road from Fulham’s training ground and it takes its name from its former owners, the BBC, which sold the site in 2005. It had been unused for a decade, with plans to turn the site into a cemetery scrapped in 2008, while a major fire destroyed much of the old sports pavilion in 2016. 

For Fulham, the aim for the new site is to provide more space for the club through a second elite facility. At first, it was envisaged that the younger academy sides would move across but the new plan is to relocate the first team and the under-23s.

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Now, nearly six years after the site was acquired, phase one works have started. 

Fulham were granted planning permission in February 2020 for an additional training facility. The club were given three years to begin the works by Kingston Borough Council and that meant the permission was set to expire in early February. So to avoid that lapsing, Fulham outlined their intention to the council to begin work in October last year. That work began in January and has now been completed.

They were “enabling” works, which essentially see the foundations laid for the project. They included the demolition of what is left of the pavilion, as well as the clearing of vegetation, rubbish, and removing an old oil tank. Permission for this phase was granted in November last year.

The prospective plans for Fulham first team’s new training ground

These are, as you can tell, very much preliminary works. The project has been delayed due to the pandemic and because of the delays and investment on the Riverside Stand development, which may not fully open before next season.

According to the club’s most recent accounts, dated up to June 2021, more than £90million ($108m) has been spent on the Riverside Stand project and that figure has increased since then. 

The Riverside remains the priority but the club still want to develop the BBC Sports Ground long term.

The current plans, outlined in the club’s 2018 planning application and in a committee report published in April 2019, envisage five full-size pitches, two goalkeeper training areas and three smaller training spaces for specialist exercises. One of the pitches would be floodlit.

There are also plans for a two-storey pavilion, complete with a swimming pool, a gym, offices, meeting spaces, a kitchen and dining areas, as well as sports science facilities. These would include hyperbaric, cryotherapy and other treatment areas.

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Upon completion, the relocation of the first and under-23 teams will allow extra space for the younger academy sides and the Foundation at Motspur Park. On top of this, Motspur Park provides 1,200 hours for community use per year and the club predict that an extra 400 hours would result from the partial move across the road. 

As part of the application, Fulham also pledged £95,000 ($114,000) to improve sports facilities at nearby Manor Park. 

There are clearly some significant benefits for Fulham from developing a second facility, particularly as other Premier League clubs are doing similar. A swathe of new facilities has emerged across the league in recent years, including at Crystal Palace, Leicester City and Bournemouth, who have recently resumed construction of their own new training ground.

Former Fulham boss Felix Magath takes a training session at Motspur Park during his time in charge of the club in 2014 (Photo: Jonathan Brady/PA Images via Getty Images)

For Fulham, such a project would appeal to staff and prospective players. The training ground, after all, is a footballer’s office, the place where they spend the majority of their time.

This is a long-term project, though. An imminent move is not on the cards and there is no timeline for completion, with phase two not yet under way. Silva and his team will continue to train and work at Motspur Park, as they have always done.

But as the recent works at the BBC Sports Ground site show, the club are still committed to a new facility. And that would mark a significant investment in the club’s future, enabling Fulham to compete with the best at academy and senior level. 

(Top photo: Getty Images)

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