FA confident Wembley will host final

The Football Association in England have expressed their confidence that this season’s FA Cup final will be held at Wembley, despite builders Multiplex claiming the completion of the stadium could be delayed until June next year.

The FA are even keeping open the option of playing an England friendly at the £757m (€1.1m) stadium on February 7.

The Australian construction firm claim an expert “in the operation of major stadia” says an event with 90,000 spectators cannot take place until a month after the FA Cup final is due to be played.

The FA and their stadium operators Wembley National Stadium Ltd (WNSL) have rejected Multiplex’s claims – unless the builders miss yet more deadlines.

The FA said in a statement: “The FA remains confident that Wembley Stadium can be ready for this season’s FA Cup final.

“This is of course dependent on when stadium constructors Multiplex meets all of its contractual obligations.

“WNSL believes it is unlikely that Multiplex will complete their work by September but they continue to expect practical completion to take place before the end of 2006.

“We do have to factor in that Multiplex have to date missed all key deadlines. However, once they do deliver the stadium they were contracted to hand over several months ago, WNSL will then be in a position to complete a detailed timetable of commissioning work, test events and any other remaining works.

“They cannot complete this work until the stadium is completed by Multiplex.

“We can also clarify that no plans have been made to book the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff for the FA Cup final.”

The background to the row is the legal dispute between Multiplex and WNSL, who blame each other for the series of delays, and because the builders have lost huge amounts of money on the project.

The stadium was due to open at the beginning of the year but Multiplex’s most recent deadline was September, though they made no mention of this in a statement to the Australian stock exchange earlier today.