Soccer: Wembley looks set to be new English national stadium

Wembley is set to be finally confirmed as the site for the new English ational stadium.

Wembley is set to be finally confirmed as the site for the new English national stadium.

It is expected that the original "triumphant arch" design by Lord Foster will be used.

The £620m stadium arch will replace the famous Twin Towers.

The announcement will come as a bitter blow to rival bidders Birmingham and Coventry, but will end months of chaos which brought into question the whole idea of a national stadium.

Australian construction company Multiplex has offered to raise much of the construction costs in return for an arrangement where it leases the stadium back to the FA.

Critics have attacked the cost of the new Wembley saying other national stadiums have been built for a fraction of the cost.

Cardiff's Millennium Stadium cost £190m, Stadium Australia in Sydney worked out at £300m, while the Stade de France, which staged the 1998 World Cup Final, cost £260m.

It is hoped the new Wembley, a slimmed-down project without the hotel and offices originally proposed, will be open in 2005, perhaps in time for that year's FA Cup Final.