Wealthy Danish businessman Thomas Sandgaard wants to secure at least a 10-year rental deal for The Valley as part his proposed takeover of Charlton.
Sandgaard’s preference is to buy the stadium and Sparrows Lane training ground, but the freeholds are still owned by former Charlton owner Roland Duchatelet.
East Street Investments (ESI) bought Charlton from Duchatelet in January with an obligation to purchase The Valley and training base for £50million within five years.
Sandgaard has made it clear he wants to bring stability to Charlton and, if he cannot buy The Valley, wants a rental agreement with Duchatelet of between 10 and 20 years.
Duchatelet has notoriously been difficult to deal with, but Sandgaard had positive talks with the Belgian’s representative Lieven De Turck this week and is optimistic a deal can be struck.
Sandgaard has told the South London Press that he hopes to have a deal in place to buy Charlton by the end of the week.
Charlton director Marian Mihail tweeted on Tuesday night: “I hope the club, Valley and Sparrows Lane will one day get back under the same owner too, but maybe 2020 is not the year for that.
“There are five years to do the deal; the rent is more than fair; plenty of big clubs in Europe rent their stadium. Don’t panic, club’s in a better place than it was two weeks ago.”
