WEMBLEY Stadium's board has dismissed calls to delay the sale of the site to the Football Association.

The decision means the sale to the FA's consortium for £103 million will now go ahead as long as shareholders back the board at a meeting tomorrow.

The move came despite calls from three rebel directors at Wembley to delay the shareholder vote in order to consider a rival bid from a US company.

The FA consortium - known as the English National Stadium Company - plans to renovate Wembley and use the stadium as the centrepiece for its bid to host the 2006 World Cup.

Some observers, including sports ministers Tony Banks, had expressed fears that unless the FA bought the stadium, England's hopes of hosting the tournament would be dashed.

In a statement issued to the stock market the Wembley board said it had rejected calls made last Friday by US sports promotion company SFX to delay the shareholder vote to consider a possible takeover of the whole Wembley group.

It said the US company could make no guarantee it would make a solid offer and warned funding for the FA's bid could disappear unless the sale went ahead quickly.

SFX said it was prepared to pay at least 400p a share for the Wembley group which would value would value the whole business at around £220 million.

The last minute wrangling over the future of the stadium came after SFX wrote to the group late last week calling for a delay to the stadium sale vote so it could put together a bid to buy the whole group.

Wembley had already rejected a 412p a share bid for the group from British leisure group Enic.

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