The Peter Varney diaries: The story behind stadium move talk to Greenwich Peninsula and the time Roman Abramovich brought armed guards to The Valley

Former Addicks chief executive reveals that AEG boss showed interest in acquiring the football club in 2005

Every month South London Sport: Charlton Athletic Edition is catching up with Peter Varney, the club’s former chief executive and a boyhood fan of the club, to get his tales and inside info from when he was in a key position of responsibility in SE7.

In this fourth instalment, Varney talks about the Addicks’ exploration of a move to Greenwich Peninsula as well as the time that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich brought armed guards to The Valley.

---

Photo by Oliver Sherwin on Unsplash

IT WOULD HAVE BEEN NEGLIGENT NOT TO EXPLORE OPTIONS TO BOOST OUR CAPACITY - ESPECIALLY WITH RUMBLINGS OF WEST HAM CONSIDERING A MOVE ON TO OUR TURF

Talk of a potential new Charlton Athletic stadium built on Greenwich Peninsula has been mooted more than once. The South London Press had a back page in August 1999 reporting that the club had proposed a 45,000-seater stadium at the Millennium Dome, which opened that same year. In 2005 the building was bought by a US consortium including Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) and renamed The 02 - another period when move talk gathered pace, ahead of planning applications to extend the East Stand. Rick Everitt’s Voice of The Valley fanzine reported court proceedings that set out how former Addicks director Tony Jimenez also had a secret plan to ditch The Valley in 2014.

When I joined Charlton Athletic as managing director in 1997, one of the things that caused me angst, and probably my dad as well, was that historically there had been under-investment in the stadium.

So developing The Valley, for me, was a priority. The West Stand was done in stages and completed in 1998. What promotion to the Premier League did was provide the finance to do it.

The North Stand, officially renamed the Covered End and completed in 2002, was basically going to be a £9.7million development.

I was the one really pushing it - that we had to do The Valley. Because as much as we wanted to improve the team, we had to have an even-handed approach.