A Stadium's Tale: Cup Final Goes West

Who's to balme for Wembley Farce?

When Wembley’s twin towers came tumbling down I must confess to a yelp of glee – I thought it would mean that my then boyfriend wouldn’t be distracted away to umpteen England matches, or trips to watch finals or ‘play-offs’ his team weren’t even involved in. However, my joy was short-lived as he started swanning off to Cardiff and other far-flung destinations instead. Now the boyfriend and the twin towers are long gone – so has my aversion to the beautiful game (that’s what they call it right?).

The five years without a cup match or an international in the city, whilst the new Wembley is being constructed, has been tough for the city’s legions of football fans. This week’s announcement by Multiplex – the firm building the stadium - that it won’t be ready for the FA cup final in May was the final straw of ineptitude in a saga to rival even the Millennium Dome. The blame laying is yet to begin in earnest; in the dock are the Government, Brent Council, the FA, Multiplex and the building sub-contractors.

While successive Tory and Labour governments stuck there oar in, they did end up donating £120 million to the cause in the form of a lottery grant, on the proviso that Wembley could be used for athletics. You would think they’d have to give the money back as athletics are not a part of the new Wembley, but they handed back a paltry £20 million. The government are guilty of misappropriation of public money, but not much else. Brent Council decided to take advantage of the situation demanding £30 million to sort out the area around the site in return for planning permission. But you can’t blame them really, with the government dishing out millions willy-nilly. The FA isn’t without blame, but once all the arguments were over, and all the decisions made, what could they have done other than sign a contract with a construction firm? They are set to lose out in a big way if all the summer’s planned concerts are called off.

That leaves us with Multiplex who agreed to build the stadium on a fixed contract that will leave them at least £75 million worse off. Quite how a company of such reputed proficiency could miscalculate so spectacularly is beyond me. Throughout the project they’ve been disingenuous, but their claims last month that there was a 70% chance the stadium would not be ready in time for the FA cup final were simply discourteous. Did they shrewdly forecast a 30% chance of a miracle? After being unable to maintain decent relationships with any of their subcontractors, now they’re trying to shove some of their losses on to the FA. It’s hard to feel sorry for a company whose investors have probably got bags of money already. They probably won’t make a profit this year. Boo hoo.

My sympathies lie with the 90,000 Take That fans, now firmly in their mid-twenties, who spent a nerve wracking few hours on the phone desperately trying to get tickets, whilst trying to conceal the fact from mocking housemates. Here in London we’ll spend another year without the football showcase and stadium concerts. It’s not the end of the world, but let’s hope lessons can be learnt for the Olympics – if we’re late on that one we can’t just send everyone off to Cardiff and wait till next year.

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