BRIAN BARWICK, the chief executive of the Football Association, confirmed yesterday that the FA Cup Final will not be played at Wembley, as planned, but at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. England’s World Cup warm-up matches against Hungary, on May 30, and Jamaica, on June 3, will move to Old Trafford and the Football League has said that its promotion play-offs finals will take place in Cardiff.

Although the decision was widely expected, it was met with much fretting about what it might mean for the prestige of the Cup. The truth, of course, is that the FA has done far more to undermine its most treasured possession than Multiplex, the bungling Australian construction company, which has demonstrated an apparent inability to grasp the concept of a deadline.

The competition’s decline began in earnest with the FA’s decision to lean upon Manchester United to play in the Club World Championship in Brazil in 1999 — hence absenting them from the FA Cup — in a futile attempt to curry favour in the race to host the 2006 World Cup finals.

An additional final in Cardiff, which has proved an adequate temporary host for the past five years, will not matter one jot. That is why yesterday’s decision will be greeted with indifference by the majority of fans.

The FA was right to remove the uncertainty by announcing the move to Cardiff — just as it was to book the Millennium Stadium as a contingency venue — after the statement by Multiplex last month that it was only 70 per cent certain that Wembley would be ready for this season’s Cup Final on May 13. After all, this percentage was arrived at by Martin Tidd, the UK managing director of Multiplex, who had previously said: “I can absolutely guarantee that the FA Cup will be held here at Wembley and I can absolutely confirm that my seat is there.”

There was more bad news for Multiplex last night when it emerged that more than 60 construction workers at the North London site had placed bets with local bookmakers three weeks ago that the stadium would not be ready to host this year’s Cup Final.

Paddy Power are said to have taken bets of about £10,000 at odds between 13-8 and 1-3 before closing the book after two days. A spokesman for the bookmakers said: “I suppose we should have reacted quicker when we saw men in hard hats placing big bets in the Wembley area. Another clue was that we did not take a penny that the stadium would be ready.”

RFL GREEN LIGHT

THROUGHOUT the Wembley saga, the Rugby Football League (RFL) has stayed rooted to its commitment that its Powergen Challenge Cup final will take place there on August 26. The RFL did not seek a contingency plan and the Millennium Stadium is booked for a Rolling Stones concert on the day of the Challenge Cup final. “We have no reason to believe that the final at Wembley is in jeopardy. Demand for tickets continues to be extremely high,” a spokesman said.

Explore Football

• Premier League

• Football League

• Scotland

• European Football

• International Football

• TheGame

• Live Match Tracker

• The Fink Tank

• Fantasy Football