Wembley Falls Silent: England Loses Final Match

Wembley's final match ended with a German goal. Dietmar Hamann scored it. England lost 1-0 on October 7, 2000. Tony Adams played his sixtieth game at Wembley that afternoon, more than anyone in the stadium's seventy-seven-year history. The old Wembley had hosted the 1966 World Cup final, Live Aid, the FA Cup final every year since 1923, and over two thousand other events that defined British sporting and cultural life. Its Twin Towers, visible from across northwest London, were as recognizable as any landmark in the city. The stadium had been built for the British Empire Exhibition of 1923, and its first major event, the FA Cup final between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United, drew an estimated 200,000 spectators who overwhelmed the 127,000-capacity ground. A police officer on a white horse named Billy pushed the crowd back from the pitch, and the "White Horse Final" became the stadium's founding legend. By 2000, Wembley was outdated. The sightlines were poor, the facilities cramped, and the athletics track around the pitch pushed spectators too far from the action. Demolition began in 2003, and the new Wembley Stadium, designed by Foster and Partners with its signature arch replacing the Twin Towers, opened in 2007 at a cost of nearly 800 million pounds, making it one of the most expensive stadiums ever built. Adams's record of sixty appearances stood as the final number in the old stadium's books, a testament to a career that spanned one of the most tumultuous periods in English football. The last match ended the way many Wembley experiences had: with England losing to Germany.