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Plan B for Wembley

If plans for the new Wembley Stadium fall through, the old arena will still be re-opened, it was revealed yesterday.

The new plans would be an escape route for the Football Association (FA) if the proposals for a new £715million ($1bn/EUR1.1bn) stadium are scrapped.

Nic Coward, company secretary of the FA said there was a "staging agreement" which meant Wembley would be reopened in its current form to stage cup final matches and other major events in order to raise money to pay back a £120m ($175m/EUR189m) lottery grant.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell will tomorrow give MPs an update on Wembley National Stadium Limited's attempts to secure private funding of the new stadium from German bank WestLB.