Wembley has hosted Tyson Fury fight and Harry Kane masterclasses – but iconic arch nearly looked radically different before ‘circus tent’ plan was abandoned

Wembley Stadium’s arch has become a landmark in London ever since the revamped site opened in 2007.

A stadium has stood on the site since 1923 and is an iconic venue that has hosted showpiece sporting events from football finals to world title boxing fights, to NFL games and wrestling events.

The final England match was played there in 2000, with the demolition officially beginning in 2002, and the national stadium being out of action for five years before it was completed.

However, the arch was not the original concept for the stadium design with the plans evolving over many years.

Foster + Partners had been involved in the project since the mid-1990s with Brent Council to revamp Wembley Stadium.

The original Wembley that had been there since the 1920s was in drastic need of change and the long process started.

Initially, plans had been drawn up to keep the iconic twin towers that everyone was familiar with.

The towers were going to be moved forward to be part of the site entrance, but this later proved not possible.

One of the key features of the old stadium was the amount of sunlight the pitch got — think of those FA Cup finals and Play-Off Finals that were played in the blistering sunshine.

The architects wanted to keep this unique feature and set about coming up with a design that would maximise sunlight onto the field.

Angus Campbell, senior partner at Foster + Partners, told talkSPORT: “Foster + Partners first got involved in the project in the mid-1990s, working with Brent Council. We did some studies about what the stadium could be and did a design that kept the twin towers, but we had to move them.

“If you look at the footprint of the old stadium it was very tight against the railway tracks. So by the time you put the