Football: Wales MUST escape misery of Millennium Stadium apathy

A crowd of just 11,589 watched the 3-1 defeat by Russia in a soulless atmosphere at the nation's most illustrious venue. A switch to a more fitting setting is overdue.

Why do the Football Association of Wales (FAW) insist on making Wales play almost all of their home matches at the Millennium Stadium?

Last night’s crowd of 11,589 for a World Cup qualifier against Russia was an embarrassment to the nation, the sport and the competition.

These days you get more people queuing to audition for X Factorthan go to support the Welsh national team when there’s little hope of qualifying, leaving an awful, and almost training ground atmosphere. At times it was quite eerie inside the ground.

It’s overdue for the FAW to leave the home of Welsh rugby and make a new home for itself at the Cardiff City Stadium just down the road. With a capacity of almost 27,000, the ground won’t look so empty the next time there’s a small eastern European nation in town, or fans just can’t be bothered to turn up.

A quick look at the attendances for Wales’ home qualifying games in for the World Cup 2010 shows that all five games could comfortably have been accommodated at the Cardiff City Stadium, had it been built then.