Another month's delay in completing Wembley stadium

Another month's delay in completing Wembley stadium

	Published : Fri, 31 Mar 2006 15:45 By : Amy Watts Print this Story

LONDON: Construction of Wembley stadium is delayed by another month as the Australian builder Multiplex Group Ltd. said it would complete the work only by the end of June and not May as planned earlier.

This has compelled the Football Association to transfer the FA Cup final scheduled to be held at Wembley in August to the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Multiplex said the delay will not add to its losses although it had booked A$251 million (around 103 million pounds) as charge after tax in February to account for new cost increases on the project.

The company also said it is entitled to a further extension pushing the completion date to September, about a year later than the original deadline.

The work will be further delayed as Wembley National Stadium Ltd., the owners of the stadium, had decided to take up other finishing works like installing the turnstiles and creating retail outlets, only after Multiplex completes its work and hands over the stadium.
Meanwhile sources said the first football match at the renovated stadium will not be held earlier than 2007.

Multiplex had originally undertaken to complete the reconstruction project, costing around 750 million pounds, by March 2006. This was postponed to May and now to end-June. The latest delay, according to Multiplex, has been on account of the 50-tonne steel roof rafter slipping some 11 days ago, and the company having to suddenly evacuate some 3,000 workers from the site for a full day. The work schedule had earlier been affected by drain and sewer problems, high winds restricting the crane work and workers' strikes.

Multiplex had come out with six profit warnings during February-December 2005 as its costs have gone up prohibitively.

The FA said in a statement that the construction is significantly behind schedule and it is apparent that the stadium will not be available to host the autumn fixtures. "The FA is taking the prudent measure of booking new venues for all our of fixtures until the year-end," it said.

At least two England qualifiers for Euro 2008, a friendly international and the Community Shield, will be moved to other venues. When completed, the 90,000-seat stadium will be the world's most expensive sports venue.