English football's major footballing events could be staying in Cardiff for a year longer after company building London's new Wembley Stadium yesterday announced the completion date would be delayed by three months.
This further delay to the completion could put the 2006 FA Cup final - due to be the major curtain raiser for the re-developed stadium - in doubt due to the procedures needed to stage the FA Cup Final next May, and the prospect of the Millennium Stadium - the natural alternative venue - possibly booked to hold another event.
Just weeks after the FA were confident of not needing the Millennium Stadium as a back-up in case the Wembley project was cast into doubt, officials will now have to approach Wales' national stadium begging them to host the prestigious tournament for a further season.
Since Wembley closed in 2001 the Millennium Stadium has hosted the FA Cup final, league cup final and end of season play offs - a coup which has generated more than £100m for the Welsh economy as well as highlighting Wales' capital to thousands who have made the journey to Cardiff and billions across the world through televised matches.
Multiplex, the company building Wembley, yesterday announced it will make a £45m loss on the flagship £750m project, which was originally due to open in December this year that figure almost six times the cost to build the Millennium Stadium with a fully retractable roof.
The Australian company now believe Wembley will open in March 2006, maintaining that the venue will be ready for the FA Cup final on May 13.
The announcement follows a hugely successful three days of league play-offs at the 72,500- seater Millennium Stadium this Bank Holiday weekend. That culminated with West Ham beating Preston North End 1-0, one of the last matches before play should be switched back to London.
At present the Millennium Stadium has a deal to host August's FA Community Shield match between Premiership champions Chelsea and FA Cup winners Arsenal, while February's Carling Cup final and the LDV Vans Trophy final are expected to be the last of the English games to be held in Cardiff.
Former Wembley manager Paul Sergeant, now in the same role at the Millennium Stadium said: "It will be an incredibly tall order for them to be able to complete the project in time for the FA Cup final in 2006.
"When you are working to such tight deadlines, the organisation which owns the events wants to know where they will take place and the logistics of staging these events have to be pulled together.
"Pushing the completion date back will have an impact on the events they are hoping to stage in 2006 - it's bound to."
Sergeant confirmed he would be contacting the Football League sometime this week to understand the exact situation and which matches could be affected by the set back.
However, he revealed that the Millennium Stadium had already given the FA an autumn deadline to decide whether the FA Cup will have to be staged in the Welsh capital.
Due to the amount major sporting fixtures raise for the stadium and Cardiff, the stadium's management is already trying to plan a schedule for next year in an attempt to try and minimise the loss of revenue from the events returning to Wembley.
It has been reported that the FA Cup semi-finals would take place at Cardiff when the final reurns to London while the Carling Cup final and LDV Vans Trophy would stay in Cardiff for next season if the completion of Wembley is in doubt.
Due to the Millennium Stadoium's hosting of the 2006 Heineken Cup final on May 20, there could be problems in hosting the FA Cup final a week earlier due to the logistics involved in organising and carrying out two major sporting events in 7 days.
Sergeant said: "We will have to know soon, possibly autumn, whether the FA Cup will have to come back to Cardiff because of the logistics and planning involved in staging such an event.
"I don't want to be gloating over other people's misfortune, I do sympathise - I have been in these situations and they are incredibly difficult projects. We are open for business. If Wembley is not ready we would like to stage these events in Cardiff but I am still working on the basis that these events will go back to Wembley next year.
"The Millennium Stadium is out in the market for other business and we are in conversations with other event owners and promoters because we have been working on the assumption these events will be returned to Wembley in 2006 and we have got a building to keep busy.
"It is a difficult situation for the people at Wembley, but we have got to look after ourselves and we have to fill our diary."
The FA's director of communications, Adrian Bevington, was last night adamant "we are as confident as we can be" that the FA Cup 2006 would be held at Wembley.
"We have a fixed contract with Multiplex so we are working to that contract. The plan is for the FA Cup final to be held at Wembley next season."
Multiplex Chief executive Andrew Roberts said, "The Wembley result is unacceptable" as the company stands to make a substantial loss on the project which has been majorly over budget from the offset.