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'Scandalously inept' British government blamed for stadium fiascos
LONDON (AP) -- The British government was criticized by a parliamentary committee Tuesday for "scandalously inept" handling of the Wembley and Picketts Lock stadium fiascos. The English Football Association and Sport England, the organization responsible for the funding and infrastructure of sports in the country, also came under fire in the report by a select committee of the House of Commons. The report, which singled out former Culture Secretary Chris Smith for blame, did not make any recommendations into what should be done with Wembley. Wembley, England's national soccer stadium, closed in October last year. Plans to rebuild it were thrown into disarray when the costs spiraled to 660 million pounds (US$924 million). The government refused to bail out the project, which is now under review. The original plan for Wembley included an athletics track, which was withdrawn by Smith last year. The report said Smith's actions were "beyond his proper responsibilities" and the decision was taken "in a hurry, on flimsy and subjective grounds." The withdrawal of athletics from Wembley led to plans for a track and field stadium at Picketts Lock. But plans for that 87-million-pound (US$122 million) stadium were scrapped in October, with London losing the right to stage the 2005 World Championships. Wembley is now in competition with a proposed venue near Birmingham in central England to be the national stadium. However, the issue is complicated by Sport England purchasing Wembley's north London site for 120 million pounds (US$174 million) before planning permission had been granted. If Wembley were scrapped, that money would need to be refunded, along with the 20 million pounds (US$29 million) that the FA failed to return to the government when athletics was taken out of the stadium. "It's deplorable that the FA has shown no intention of returning the public money to which it has no right," the report said. "The agreement struck between the former Secretary of State (Smith) and the Football Association ... which after two years has yet to result in a signed legal document, represents a scandalously inept treatment of public money. "Government had no business effectively to rewrite the terms of a lottery funding agreement to which it was not a party. Equally Sport England had no business allowing this to happen and deserve censure for being so slack and negligent." The government's involvement in the Picketts Lock athletics stadium debacle was described as "sorry and convoluted." "A national athletics center at Picketts Lock was plucked out of the air by the government and abruptly dropped," the report said. "It is a saga of how a government involved itself beyond its scope and powers." The report supported the decision to back out of the project, but said there was no justification for the sudden shift from "confidence to alarm."
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