Picture the scene. A big sporting event, held in a venue that cost hundreds of millions of pounds, and it is raining. It is raining hard. It looks like God has turned on a shower over the stadium. The fans are dry - well, most of them are - but the players are getting absolutely soaked. There is a roof on the stadium but that is not stopping the rain on the pitch.
This is not the farce in Poland on Tuesday. This is not the Poland National Stadium. This is August 25th, the Carnegie Challenge Cup final between Warrington Wolves and Leeds Rhino. This is Wembley, and although the roof is closed, thanks to some genius the roof does not cover the pitch, and never will.
While Adrian Chiles and his three stooges, along with the fourth estate, ridiculed Poles, Poland, and the Poland FA (as well as FIFA, UEFA, the referee, British Rail and the boogeyman), the England FA must be filling its pants while it waits to be put out to dry whenever the clouds gather over Wembley.
Poland's National Stadium cost £400million. Wembley cost double. Like it's counterpart, the roof cannot be closed if spectators are inside due to health and safety, but unlike it's continental cousin if there was a torrential downpour closing the roof would do nothing to help. The ground in North West London does at least have a proper drainage system, and if the surface water overwhelmed the draining one would hope we would reach a quicker decision to abandon the match than we did in Poland.
The point remains, however, that the Poland debacle was not a problem consigned to corner cutting Eastern Europeans and idiotic FA's. The FA at home are just as culpable for ill-thought out decisions and the home of football is one freak weather event away from disaster. One would hope the FA have taken the chance to plan for a downpour to avoid the embarrassment of a cancelled or delayed match, but I would not bet on it.
