Officials have confirmed the 2003 FA Cup final will not be held at Wembley despite the announcement that a new contractor has been found to build the £475 million stadium.

Australian construction company Multiplex - builders of the Stadium Australia complex for the Olympic Games - have agreed a contract price of £326.5 million less than two weeks after their consortium with Bovis declared it could not be done.

Wembley unilaterally pulled out of talks at that stage, but a new deal has been resurrected with Multiplex alone which keeps the project within its budget. It is now expected the new arena will open with a schoolboy international early in 2004.