FAW torn over Wales stadium switch

Feb 14 2008 by Paul Abbandonato, Western Mail

WELSH soccer chiefs are torn in two over the wishes of John Toshack and his players to move key World Cup matches away from the Millennium Stadium.

FA of Wales bosses are keen to give the Welsh squad what they want by playing qualifiers in front of full houses at Swansea City’s Liberty Stadium, instead of a half-empty Millennium Stadium.

But they say the minimum number of fans who want to attend World Cup games will be around the 26,000 mark, a figure only the palatial 74,000-seater Cardiff venue can accommodate in Wales.

The FAW accept they are almost damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

They either run the risk of upsetting Toshack and his players by not adhering to their wishes, or they run the risk of angering thousands of fans who would not be able to see crunch games at the smaller venue.

Wales stand-in skipper Simon Davies and midfield talisman Jason Koumas have each echoed Toshack’s call to take matches away from the Millennium Stadium, where Wales historically have a poor record.

The pros and cons of the whole matter will be debated thoroughly at a meeting of the FAW’s international committee. Toshack is expected to express his own views during those discussions.

Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground and Cardiff City’s Ninian Park home have been ruled out as options for Wales, as a result of strict new Uefa criteria governing stadia which host competitive matches.

However, Swansea’s ground is a credible alternative and the FAW will have to weigh up finance and the wishes of fans with the wishes of Toshack and his players.

FAW president Peter Rees admitted, “When you actually get down to the nitty-gritty of this, you realise there are major complications and these are the issues that need to be addressed.

“Everything will be discussed in full by our international committee and a decision will be reached.

“We would be pretty silly if we didn’t take into account the views of the Wales manager. Equally, we have to take into account the fact our fans want to see matches.

“If I’m honest, my personal view is that I can’t say which way that will go at the moment. The pros and cons will be debated and it could go either way.”

Toshack’s young guns have home games with Azerbaijan, Liechtenstein, Finland, Germany and Russia in the race to reach South Africa 2010.

The Racecourse and Ninian Park cannot stage Wales qualifiers because they don’t have a big enough capacity and temporary seating is not permitted any more under Uefa rules.

The Liberty Stadium has a 20,000 crowd capacity, but that number would be reduced for Wales games because of crowd segregation and tickets that are guaranteed to around 2,000 premium seat holders.

Rees said, “I have discussed this whole matter in great detail with John Toshack and he has put some extremely valid points to us.

“But it is a very complicated matter when you get down to the fine detail, which is something we have to do as an association.

“For example, we already have a database membership in excess of 20,000. These are regular fans who come to watch our games at the Millennium Stadium.

“If we limit our capacity by moving matches elsewhere, we would obviously upset some of those fans.

“On the other hand, I totally see the argument from John and his players about wanting to play in front of a full house because of the atmosphere that generates.

“Further complicating things is that, looking at the fixture list, I’m very hopeful of at least six points from our first four games.

“If we are in that position and continue on the huge upward curve which John is taking us on, we could anticipate selling lots of tickets for our next home match.

“So how many people would we then have to potentially upset if we were not at the Millennium Stadium?

“These are just some of the many issues that will be thoroughly debated at the right time by the international committee before a decision is taken.

“However, one thing I do agree 100 per cent upon is that we should not tell the opposition which venue we are using until the 60-day ruling kicks in.

“Other countries play that game with us, so why shouldn’t we keep our own options open and do it with them, too.”