FA books the Millennium Stadium for Cup Final

The Football Association (FA) is to pay GBP 1m to host this season's FA Cup Final in the Millennium Stadium. The FA which fears that the new Wembley Stadium will not be completed in time, provisionally booked the 74,000-seater venue, and paid deposit of £150,000 to reserve the 13 May date.

The FA had to make the request following a series of setbacks to their own GBP757m Wembley project. The London stadium is now due to be completed by 31 March and not the end of next January as previously hoped. But even the latest deadline now looks over-ambitious. Earlier this month it was reported that large air bubbles in the concrete foundations of the stadium have forced main contractors Multiplex to make urgent repairs to brittle supporting pillars. The Australian firm has already admitted that the project will lose them GBP45m. If work is completed by then there would still be precious little time to stage the two test events required by law before the 90,000 arena can be awarded a safety certificate.

A firm decision on whether or not to use the Millennium Stadium, which staged the last five FA Cup finals after the old Wembley was demolished, will be needed before the end of this year to allow the necessary arrangements to be put in place.