Birmingham puts its case for Wembley shown to Caborn

Richard Caborn, the Sports minister, paid a flying visit to Birmingham yesterday to study its plans to build a national football stadium – and then hinted that the project would stay at Wembley.

The Government set itself an eight-week deadline last night for deciding the future of the ill-fated project, after its collapse last month.

The review will be headed by Patrick Carter, a wealthy businessman who is a non- executive director of the Prison Service. He has been told to consider sites outside London if a scheme at Wembley proves impractical.

After talks with Birmingham City Council leaders, Mr Caborn said: "The case for Birmingham was put very forcibly." He added: "We must not forget that London is one of the major capitals of the world and is a great asset to us."

Mr Carter is also understood to favour the stadium remaining in London.

The terms of reference of his review were revealed in a Commons written answer by Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. She said he would be asked to "examine if the project can be funded and managed at Wembley or, if that proved impractical, at another location in England".

Ms Jowell set him the target of reporting within eight weeks, which gives him until 20 August.