-Caveat Lector- From http://www.guardian.co.uk/wembley/article/0,2763,602957,00.html
}}}>Begin Smith and the great £120m football scam Minister's bizarre role in Wembley fiasco exposed Vivek Chaudhary, sports correspondent Wednesday November 21, 2001 The Guardian The government's handling of the Wembley stadium project was yesterday exposed as a scandalous waste of public money, marred by a series of blunders and unaccountable deals between ministers and sports officials that led to millions of pounds of lottery money being paid to the Football Association, one of the richest sports bodies in the country. The report by the culture, media and sport select committee is damning of Sport England, the government quango which distributes sports lottery money, for giving the FA £120m towards the cost of constructing Wembley in January 1999. This was a "cavalier and egregious use of public funds". And it is particularly critical of former culture, media and sport secretary Chris Smith for the way he conducted a deal with Chelsea chairman Ken Bates over the handing back of £20m of lottery money once it was decided t hat Wembley would be for football only and would not host athletics. The report claims this deal represented a "scandalously inept treatment of public money" and criticises the FA for failing to pay the money back, claiming that it has a moral obligation to do so. The curious meeting between Mr Smith and Mr Bates took place on the morning of December 22 1999 at the then cabinet minister's home in Islington. This was despite repeated warnings from officials that Mr Smith should not see Mr Bates - the then chairman of the FA's Wembley project - in these circumstances. No civil servant was present and a private secretary who arrived late took only limited minutes. Mr Smith and Mr Bates agreed on a handshake that the FA would hand back £20m. The government is still waiting for its money. MPs asked for the minutes of the meeting but were refused by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. In a further twist it emerged yesterday that at the same meeting, Mr Smith had gone along with Mr Bates' request that the FA be given the naming rights to the new stadium. This is potentially worth millions of pounds be cause it could be sold on to a sponsor. The news of this deal only emerged six months later. The report is also critical of the way government and sports officials handled the Picketts Lock stadium project. A new national athletics stadium was supposed to be constructed at the site in north-east London in time fo r the 2005 world athletics championships but was abandoned last month by the government following funding problems, making Britain a laughing stock within the international sporting community. Despite being chosen in October 1996 as the site for a new national stadium, construction has yet to begin at Wembley and the FA has still not decided whether it will go ahead after the project ran into financial problems . The country still does not have a national football or athletics stadium. The select committee, led by Labour MP Gerald Kaufman recommends that the whole fiasco be investigated by the national audit office. Mr Smith yesterday criticised the report's findings. He said: "I cannot agree with the select committee's analysis of events. I think it's particularly sad that this intemperate report ignores the very real advantages for British athletics which could have been secured by the Picketts Lock stadium and a successful world championships in 2005." Mr Bates was not available for comment, while the FA also refused to comment. Trevor Brooking, chairman of Sport England, criticised Mr Smith claiming that he had been acting outside his powers. He said: "On December 13 1999 our chief executive wrote to the permanent secretary at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport warning of the risk of the government acting outside its powers and beyond the secretary of state's responsibilities... However, we totally reject the suggestion that our £120m grant to Wembley was premature and cavalier. Before awarding the grant to Wembley, we undertook extensive consultations, sought legal and financial advice and put in place a lottery funding agreement to protect this award of public money." 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