IT'S rare I write Fair Point columns on the beautiful game but having caught a bit of Premier League football on Monday I had to say something about the Wembley pitch row.

When I was growing up the national stadium was the hallowed turf, the iconic Twin Towers, the home of football. Matches at the venue were rare, special occasions and the home of England internationals.

Clubs aspired to get there and to an extent that is still true. When my home town club Bromsgrove Sporting were one match away in a non-league trophy last year, the town was captivated by the prospect of seeing the team play there.

I have had the chance to visit the new Wembley twice, firstly for an England match and second to see Birmingham City win the Carling Cup. On both those occasions I could see Wembley can come alive and be the impressive stadium under the now iconic arch it was always meant to be.

But there is no doubt Wembley is also now fast losing its respect and the magic, and that was never more obvious than on Monday night. For anyone who missed it, the match was Tottenham versus Manchester City, in a fairly dull league game.

The pitch was the main talking point as the match was played 24 hours after a NFL game, complete with the American NFL logo and markings on a pitch probably more suitable for grazing by cows.

I already had an issue with Spurs playing there as it was meant to only be for one season and extending it into a second year, as Spurs' new stadium is not ready, and with Chelsea also likely to play league games there at some point - Wembley is beginning to feel like just another stadium.

Is this where we are now? The national stadium becoming the home of shambolic comedic scenes, and rented out to the highest bidder.

And all that is before we even get to the whole row over the Football Association trying to sell the stadium off to Fulham owner Shahid Khan - luckily a deal Khan later pulled out of over the public backlash. Maybe we should have seen the warning signs for the stadium when it suffered major delays during construction and cost an eventual £1 billion to build, far more than originally forecast.

All I can hope for now is Wembley somehow regains the magic, particularly when it is set to be the venue for the European Championships final in two years time.