Wembley way - it's just another farce
The first people to play at the jewel in England's footballing crown could be Bon Jovi. That would be a fitting testament to a project which seems to have been living on a prayer ever since its inception.
The news that Wembley will not host this year's FA Cup Final is as surprising as finding Sven Goran Eriksson in somebody else's bedroom.
Ever since the FA set out on creating a new national stadium the scheme has been dogged by bungling management and soaring costs.
Less than a year after awarding Australian firm Multiplex the £326.5 million contract to rebuild the stadium, the game's governing body was forced to go, begging bowl in hand, to the Government for help.
To add insult to injury it then had to be bailed out by a German bank before work could finally get under way.
Even before a brick was laid the FA had shown itself totally incapable of managing the reconstruction of football's most evocative landmark.
The start of work in September 30 did not end the embarassment.
Multiplex was never able to keep pace with its deadline, suffering an industrial disputes and falling profits.
The company claimed one reason for the delay that was that the wrong type of concrete was used in the foundations - an excuse right out of the Jesse James Guide to Construction.
It suffered more humiliation when a newspaper investigated claims that dozens of workers were using cocaine and cannabis.
Now it faces fines of £1 million a week for running over deadline and is set to make a £100 million loss on the whole development - mismanagement on a grand scale.
Hardly surprising for a company which today admitted it was disappointed with the FA's decision to "transfer the 2006 FA Cup final to the Millennium Dome in Cardiff."
It seems the company cannot even get the small things right - let alone construction of the world's most lavishly conceived stadium.
Ironically Wembley, once a name that puffed the national chest with a swell of pride, now stands aside the Millennium Dome as one which evokes mild embarassment.
But the blame should not rest solely with Multiplex.
It was the FA who awarded the contract and then allowed costs to spiral to a jaw-dropping £757 million.
And maybe all the problems that have ensued are nothing more than the FA deserves for going ahead with a plan which had little widespread support from the people who matter most - the fans.
The construction of a new national arena was the chance to give the country a stadium everyone could have a share in.
Building it in a truly accessible part of the the country rather than a god-forsaken outpost of London with woeful transport links would have been the sensible choice.
But common sense is not in great supply at Soho Square.
And so we are left with the prospect of summer rock concerts rather than football marking the opening of the game's new home.
The one crumb of solace is that the FA and Multiplex will have no say in the planning of the London Olympics.
If they were you can bet we'd be be talking about shifting the whole thing to Paris
Source
expressandstar.com
i wouldn't mind a day out in wales
