Chelsea should finalise the purchase of AFC Wimbledon's Kingsmeadow stadium this month, the League Two club's chief executive has confirmed.
The Premier League champions want to use the ground for their ladies and youth teams that currently play in Staines and Aldershot respectively, while AFC Wimbledon are moving ahead with plans to construct and move into a new stadium in the club's historic home of Plough Lane in Merton.
The deal to purchase the stadium is expected to cost Chelsea in excess of £2 million and while AFC Wimbledon chief executive Eric Samuelson admits the prolonged sale process is "complex," he is confident an agreement between all parties will be formally reached by the end of February.
"As you know, a key element of the financing of the [Plough Lane] stadium is the sale of Kingsmeadow to Chelsea FC," Samuelson said in a statement on AFC Wimbledon's official website. "The contract is close to being finalised, and I am hopeful that it will be signed in February.
"To remind you, the sale will only go ahead once a number of 'conditions precedent' are met, and until that happens the stadium remains in our ownership. Although the principle of the deal is straightforward, the detail is complex, and getting to this stage has been a long process.
"Nevertheless, all the negotiations have been carried out in a practical and constructive way, and we are getting close to a final agreement."
The deal to buy Kingsmeadow is not related to Chelsea's proposed £600m redevelopment of Stamford Bridge -- a project personally overseen and financed by owner Roman Abramovich and the subject of a planning application under consideration by Hammersmith and Fulham council.