Cardiff rivals the Nou Camp

The Millennium Stadium captures the FA Cup spirit

After being impressed by Cardiff's handling of the 2001 FA Cup, BBC Sport's Rob Bonnet reckons there's no need to rush building an English national stadium.

Was it Barcelona 1999 or Cardiff 2001? It was hard to tell, but it felt the same.

This time I was there as a fan, neutral of course, but with tickets for the Arsenal section.

This was a set-piece footballing occasion like it was really meant to be.

Amidst all the worries about an English FA Cup Final in Wales and the horrors of getting in and out of Cardiff, the day was just perfect.

Maybe it helped that my fellow fan (also neutral) knew a thing or two about getting into South Wales. We took the old Severn Bridge and the M48.

Cardiff's venue looked almost Mediterranean on Saturday

It had about as many cars as a country B-road. Steve reckoned we had saved ourselves half an hour, a good tip for the play-off finals perhaps?

Yes, there was a crawl into Cardiff, but the park-and-ride worked well.

Once there, we received a friendly welcome from the staff, who handed out maps of Cardiff city centre with clear instructions about drop-off and pick-up points.

There was no wait for the coach, which took us briskly to within 400 yards of the Millennium stadium.

The bars and pubs around the ground had a great lunchtime atmosphere.

This, remember, was segregated territory because Liverpool fans had been directed further down the M4 and were approaching the city from the opposite direction.

Unnecessary precautions perhaps, but re-assuring nevertheless, from whichever side of the divide.

Great atmosphere

Maybe it also helped that the weather was Mediterranean, and that Cardiff, like Barcelona, has a water-front.

We could go to Mermaid Quay for lunch, and be back in town and inside the stadium by 2:15pm.

There cannot be a bad seat in this magnificent house, where the pitch is within touching distance and the acoustics boom, especially during the pre-match fireworks.

Although the noise subsided during that lifeless first half, it built to a crescendo during those glorious last 20 minutes as Owen did to Arsenal what Sheringham and Solskjaer had done to Bayern.

Perfect? Well, not quite.

Maybe television was extracting its pound of flesh from the post-match interviews but it seemed like an eternity as the podium was erected and the Cup was engraved.

The FA does not need to be staging internationals in a featureless north-west London suburb

  Rob Bonnet

That is a detail lost on anyone beyond touching distance. Why not just present the Cup and engrave it afterwards?

So for my money, which I had otherwise happily paid, the presentation was a bit anti-climactic, though the departure from Cardiff went as well as the arrival.

Of course there were some delays, but I still say that this first FA Cup Final outside England was a logistical triumph

It is one that the FA should have no shame in repeating, despite what the papers may be saying about Twickenham.

The FA chief executive Adam Crozier is doubtless being told to keep his head down at the moment but if I was him, I would have other plans.

I would be sorely tempted to consider flogging off Wembley to the highest bidder, giving the government back its money and politely suggesting that it gets on with the National Stadium in its own sweet time.

Wembley can wait

The FA does not need to be staging internationals in a featureless north-west London suburb.

It needs to be continuing the success story of the road-show that has so far been to Birmingham and Liverpool and continues this year in Derby and Newcastle.

National stadiums are the business of national governments, not of one governing body trying to show that it is first amongst equals.

Do not worry Adam. If and when it is built, the National Stadium will have grass in the middle with enough room for a pitch.

And the government will surely let you stage the Cup Final there if you want to. Meanwhile Cardiff - or was it the Camp Nou? - will do very nicely.