FA plays down semi-final ticket fears

The Football Association has moved to allay fears that fans could stay away from Wembley at next season‘s FA Cup semi-finals.

It follows concerns that Chelsea and Blackburn have struggled to sell their allocation of tickets for Sunday‘s semi-final at Old Trafford. According to The Times, the clubs have a combined 16,000 seats to sell.

Watford, who were allocated about 17,000 seats for their semi against Manchester United at Villa Park, still have around 1,500 left, according to the paper.

However, an FA spokesman is reported as saying: “We are confident we will see big crowds at Wembley for the semi-finals. We want to make the semi-finals as accessible to as many fans as possible and Old Trafford is the biggest club ground in the country.

“Old Trafford and Villa Park are well-established venues for the semi-finals and are used to dealing with the logistics.”

The Times quotes Mike Graham, of the Blackburn Independent Supporters Association claiming he is not surprised by the low take-up from Rovers fans.

“It‘s a low-wage area,” he said. “Even forking out £25 (€37) per ticket -[the minimum price] is a lot, never mind £55 (€81) [the maximum].”