Manchester United will not be rushed into ditching the FA Cup for the World Team Championship. The Treble winners are still mulling over the English Football Association's unprecedented offer for them to withdraw from next season's competition and take part in the inaugural FIFA tournament.

Some of the United board met on Monday night to discuss the FA's proposal, and the club had suggested that they would make an announcement yesterday.

But the United directors have still to decide and will now not release a statement until today at the earliest.

The FA are anxious for United to take part in the World Team Championship in Brazil from January 5th-14th to help England's 2006 World Cup bid and have offered exemption from the FA Cup to ease their fixture congestion.

United's Chairman and chief executive, Martin Edwards, claims the FA has put the club in a no-win situation, and the Old Trafford board will take as long as they need before coming to a decision. He realises that they will be criticised whatever they decide.

In the face of the growing flak following their controversial decision to allow United to miss out on defending the FA Cup next season, the FA insisted that they cared passionately about the competition.

David Davies, the FA's interim executive director declared: "We have agonised over this problem for many days and are not surprised by the controversy.

"The FA Cup is our heritage and we care passionately about it." Meanwhile moves to allow United to miss next season's FA Cup could be the thin end of a wedge that costs the country's minnows hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Hartlepool United director Harold Hornsey says the absence of the biggest clubs from the FA Cup could mean the end of massive cash windfalls for the poorer relations. "If we were to draw Manchester United away in the cup, it would mean around £500,000 to us. That represents about half of our total annual wage bill."