04 May 2001
The FA has already received £120m of lottery money, through its subsidiary Wembley National Stadium Limited, to acquire the site. It is now asking for up to £150m more to save the project.
A working party of ministers, headed by Home Secretary Jack Straw and Culture Secretary Chris Smith, is to consider the future of the project, including the possibility of abandoning it altogether or moving it outside the capital, leaving Wembley high and dry.
Smith said: 'I am afraid the government cannot simply come up with a blank cheque and solve the problems that have arisen on this extremely expensive project.'
A spokeswoman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, added: 'The government will be focusing in future weeks on Wembley and looking at the issue of a national stadium. Nothing is being ruled out. More funding could come from the lottery or the taxpayer but as yet we have not been asked by the FA.'
Conservatives have described the situation as a 'fiasco' and raised the spectre of a disaster to rival the Millennium Dome.
The FA is being asked by the banks to pay £125m in equity to maintain the project, plus £55m each year in interest on a £400m loan. An FA spokesman said: 'The financial model on which the project was based, supported by specialist advice, has proved flawed and the banks now require full financial recourse to the FA.
'The FA simply cannot afford to act as the sole sponsor of the scheme – the scale of the commitment required would put our own future in jeopardy and the development of football throughout the country.'
If the Wembley Stadium project falls apart, a total of £110m of public and private investment for the planned regeneration of the Wembley area could be in jeopardy, according to the London Borough of Brent.
Brent has already negotiated millions of pounds of Single Regeneration Budget funding from the government and thrashed out a £72m deal with London Underground to rebuild Wembley Park underground station.
Council leader Ann John said: 'After the recent uncertainties and delays, we welcome the government's intervention and we will give ministers every help we can to find a viable solution to keep the stadium at Wembley. We won't let the Wembley dream die. There is a lot of investment riding on this project.'
PFmay2001
