UK govt set on banning betting sponsors at Wembley Stadium

American billionaire and Fulham supremo Shahid Khan is in talks to take over control at the National Stadium but the Government is set on imposing strict rules on any new owners - including banning permanent Jacksonville Jaguars signage around the ground.

The Government is imposing a ban on any gambling adverts at Wembley Stadium as one of their strict conditions of any sale of the venue.

The Football Association is currently locked in talks with Khan over a proposed £600million deal to flog the national stadium. Khan is looking to take control of the 90,000-seater ground as he plots to give his Jacksonville Jaguars NFL franchise a semi-permanent home in London.

A decision on whether Khan, 68, has been successful is likely to be made before the end of the year as both sides attempt to reach common ground on the commercial implications of the buyout. And part of the negotiations will be to wrestle with how to comply with rules being laid down by the Government aimed at protecting the long-term future of Wembley for football.

One of those was an insistence that any new owner would be barred from renaming the ground until at least 2057 - protecting against any controversial decision to rename it due to a sponsorship agreement. Another is the demand for a total ban on all gambling sponsors at the stadium.

The FA were forced to end their lucrative partnership with Ladbrokes last year due to a conflict of interest in having a betting partner when everyone connected with the game was banned from betting on football. The Government wants that ban to remain in place as a condition to them granting permission for any proposed change of ownership.

Despite the obvious desire to use Wembley as a base for the Jaguars NFL franchise, there is also another condition that the permanent branding of the team around the ground is not allowed.