The Electronic Telegraph Thursday 11 October 2001 Mihir Bose
WEMBLEY as the venue for the 2005 World Athletics Championships is fast becoming sport's equivalent of the abominable snowman - much talked about but unlikely to exist. Following yesterday's revelation in Telegraph Sport that a cut-price Wembley incorporating an athletics track is once again being put forward as a way for London to stage the championships, there have been further moves to push the idea. Yesterday morning Sir Rodney Walker, the chairman of Wembley National Stadium Limited, whose idea it is, had a breakfast meeting at Simpson's with Len Hatton, the chairman of the 2005 organising committee. Hatton left the meeting optimistic that the 2005 championships could still be salvaged. "Three years should be enough to rebuild Wembley," he said. Hatton has invested £70,000 in the project and the Government's decision to cancel the Picketts Lock plans and look to Sheffield - an offer rejected by the International Association of Athletics Federations - left him in a difficult situation. He spent last weekend apologising to IAAF officials. Walker has been wrestling with the problem of how to stage athletics at Wembley since he took over as chairman of Wembley in January. By then it was clear that the Picketts Lock development would prove very difficult. Chris Smith, then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, had removed athletics from the Wembley proposals and promised that the 2005 championships would be staged at Picketts Lock. Walker suggested to Smith that Britain should go back to the IAAF and say that a new Wembley incorporating athletics would be the best solution, but that it would be ready in 2007, not 2005. Smith rejected the idea. With Picketts Lock abandoned by Smith's successors, Walker revived his ideas - retain the Twin Towers and have an athletics track on a cut-price platform - and presented them on Monday to Richard Caborn, the Sports Minister. Caborn said he would pass them on to Patrick Carter, the businessman the Government have called in to advise on Wembley. This is where Walker's problems lie. He may be chairman of Wembley, but it is owned by the Football Association and since Ken Bates was replaced as chairman by Walker the major decisions are being taken by Adam Crozier, the chief executive of the FA. It was Crozier who asked the Government for money to rebuild Wembley, and that brought in Carter. The two men are believed to be working on a plan for a football-only stadium. We may hear more about Wembley staging athletics and somehow saving the 2005 championships, but it remains unlikely to happen. Eamonn Condon www.RunnersGoal.com
