Give a big cheer for Wembley

TONY Blair began his conference speech with a few sporting jokes and, since we are in the North-West, warm congratulations to Manchester for staging the Commonwealth Games. I'm happy to extend my best wishes, but I know that the success of those games has been used to argue against the building of the new national stadium at Wembley.

Those arguments are misguided. If we are to make a bid for the Olympics, the only city which will be considered from this country is London - and the new Wembley will be crucial to that bid.

I'm sure I wasn't the only football or rugby-league fan to have had mixed feelings when watching the bulldozers move in on Wembley. My love of history and heritage prompted a natural sadness. But as a national stadium the old Wembley was a disgrace.

Viewing lines, access and toilet facilities were positively primitive. The plus points were the memories - 1966, of course, but also for a Chelsea fan, the fact that the last Wembley cup final goal was scored by our own Robbie Di Matteo in 2000.

Forgive me if I feel a small sense of vindication. The scheme that's going ahead is in all essentials the one I left behind in July 1999, when I stood down as Sports Minister.

We make a bit of a meal of these things in this country and the delay has been a shame. This is the time, however, to accentuate the positive, to celebrate the fact that we are going to have the world's finest football stadium.

I'm delighted for the ministers involved, Tessa Jowell and Richard Caborn, and for my often-abused friends at the Football Association.

Tim Lott is away

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