Wembley hit by 'dynamite' report

The future of the new national football stadium at Wembley was dramatically thrown into fresh doubt today after MPs saw a "dynamite" report detailing the mismanagement of the £715 million project.

The MPs were so enraged after seeing partly blacked-out copies of the top-secret report, by City troubleshooter David James, that they abruptly cancelled a meeting today at which they had planned to quiz Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell and FA chief executive Adam Crozier on the Wembley plans.

Following a hastily arranged private meeting this morning, MPs on the culture and sport committee, chaired by Labour veteran Gerald Kaufman, decided to issue the FA with an ultimatum - release the report or they will seek a parliamentary order forcing publication. The move calls into fresh question the Government's support for the new-look Wembley, seen as crucial to getting the controversial scheme off the ground.

Ms Jowell has already given the FA more time to make its case for Wembley. However, she has pledged she will give a firm "yes or no" answer by next Thursday at the latest - a timetable she looks increasingly unlikely to be able to meet.

A well-placed Westminster source told the Standard today: "Tessa is caught between a rock and a hard place. She has got to make a definitive statement in nine days' time and the Government still don't know what to do.

What the committee saw of the report into the funding of Wembley was dynamite. It basically detailed all the cock-ups carried out under the umbrella of the FA by the former managers of the Wembley project.