New Wembley will not host first match until 2007

The English Football Association said Wembley will not host its first football match until 2007, nine months after this year's FA Cup final was due to be played in the 757 million pound ($1.3 billion) stadium.

The new Wembley will not host its first football match until 2007, nine months after this year's FA Cup final was due to be played in the 757 million pound ($1.3 billion) stadium, the English Football Association revealed.

Three England matches and the traditional curtain-raiser to the English football season, the Community Shield match between the Premiership and FA Cup winners, will now be switched to alternative venues.

Rugby League's Challenge Cup final, due to be played on August 26, has also been moved. The match, for which more than 30,000 tickets have already been sold, will now be played at Twickenham, the London home of English rugby union.

The announcements followed confirmation by the builders of the new stadium, Australian firm Multiplex, that work on the new stadium will continue over the summer.

Construction had initially been due to finish at the end of last year, in plenty of time to allow the stadium to host the FA Cup final on May 13.

That objective was abandoned last month and, in a statement on Friday, the FA said it had become clear that Wembley was "significantly behind schedule."

"We do not want to set deadlines on when the stadium will open and be faced with the constant speculation surrounding this as we approach individual fixtures," a spokesman said.

"Therefore, we believe it is important that we are transparent with our plans. The FA is taking the prudent measure of booking new venues for all of our fixtures until the year end."

Storm clouds gather over Wembley Stadium in north London. The English Football Association said Wembley will not host its first football match until 2007, nine months after this year's FA Cup final was due to be played in the 757 million pound ($1.3 billion) stadium.

The football matches concerned are the Community Shield (August 13), a friendly international (August 16) and Euro 2008 qualifiers against Andorra (September 2) and Macedonia (October 7).

The fresh delay means that the new Wembley's first match is likely to be an international friendly in February between England and opposition who have yet to be confirmed.

In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange earlier on Friday, Multiplex said building work on the new stadium would not be "substantially" completed until the end of June and that commissioning and cleaning work would continue after that date.

Multiplex said its contractual obligations technically allow it to complete the project as late as September -- a claim which is expected to end in a court battle over compensation for the delays in completing the project.