And Brian all these single tickets that are raffled end up where? as I have never seen a final that has 40,000 impartial attendees.
How many of these 40,000 are sold to ’scalpers’ who trade them on at hugely inflated prices to fans who have no other means of obtaining a ticket.

I’m sorry Brian, although I appreciate that your club donates to charity on the back of this, I still find this a weak argument why 1,000 of true Everton fans who’ve spent a lot of money following there team over the years will either miss the big day or end up being ripped off!!

Brian, the people involved in grass roots football do it because they want to. They are not forced to do it - its a hobby that most of them enjoy. For you to say that we would have to rely forgein players if you where not there is laughable. The FA cup final seats should be shared between the 2 clubs who contest the final, not the freeloading ’football family’.

Working in the world of corportae events, the Majority of the remaining tickets will be sold to companies, that is were the money is. I have been working with a comapny that has just purchased 32 tickets to the game for £47k. OK they will get fed and watered for that but i am sure that is where the majority of the tickets will be going. (Sadly i aint one of those 32)

Also not sure there will be many individuals below the age of 16 going to the game without a parent. Hopefully you will be able to expalin. Will there be 40000 parents waiting outside to pick up the kid after the match???

Sorry Brian but that is absolute bollocks! I have attended five FA Cup finals involving Everton. Excluding the ’Hillsborough Final’ which was a special case, it is always patently obvious that the vast majority of supporters are associated with the two clubs.

In 1966 it was obvious that there must have been more than 40,000 Evertonians present that day. We did not just occupy our end, there were whole swathes of Blues all over the ground,

They probably got their tickets in the same way I did. I got mine from my boss at the time who got it via the FA and his work in grassroots football. He didn’t want to go because he was a Kopite and sold it to me at face value which I recall as being £6! ( God rest his departed soul!) Sadly, my experience was exceptional and I am afraid that there will be many more supporters of both clubs at Wembley this year than the official allocation but the vast majority will be ripped off by touts and agencies and won’t get theirs from a decent bloke like I did all those years ago. And I am afraid I know how the touts get their grasping little fingers on them.

The FA’s ’Out the Tout’ campaign is laughable (and they wouldn’t need such a campaign would they if what you say is true!) It is laughable because it is their inept attempt to solve a problem of their own making when the real solution is to get rid of touts by negating demand and this can only be done by allocating to the clubs in the final a much higher number of tickets.

Taking it as read that the FA will offer tickets to the ’football family’, is there not a better, smarter way they could do this?

Presumably they know before the season starts how many tickets they’ll be offering to the football family which gives them at least nine months to sort out a decent ticketing policy. They could invite members of the football family to apply for tickets which can then be personalised for each recipient (a lá Glastonbury). This would prevent the tickets being sold on to touts, and would, presumably, reduce the amount of ’football family’ tickets as not all would be taken up. The remainder could then be allocated to the clubs.

Just an idea, but you think that the FA could be more creative rather than issue anti-tout press releases at the same time as supplying the touts, albeit indirectly.

The ’football family’ is a euphemism for the FA’s corporate elite. The FA are no more bothered about grass roots football as they are about good referees and fairness in the system - west ham/sheffield united/ man utd bias/ come to mind - it’s all about the money.
And the Cup Final is the one annual event when the FA can get up of its bum and parade in front of the world. Their self-glorifying, self-satisfied faces make me nausious.

In 1966 I bought my ticket outside Wembley at 2-55 pm. It was a 10bob ticket and cost me £5. The people I bought it off, were well dressed trilby wearing swells, and very well spoken. I checked the ticket in the envelope, then scarpered off to the match.Later on I happened to check the envelope, and lo and behold, printed in bold letters was Cambridge CITY foot ball club, and I still have the envelope and my ticket stub. The situation speaks for itself.

Sorry Brian,
I’m still a little vexed. Can you please explain, what grass roots football has to do with FA Cup finals. Why giving your guys a ticket will stop teams snapping up foreigners?

Gaz, your quite correct that it is a simple matter to "personalise" tickets. It really is. Its not difficult to do for the football family segment at least because the FA know EXACTLY who the tickets are sent to and well beforehand.

A much more sensible perspective would be to allocate 50% to each club and any "spare / unwanted" could be returned for the football family use.

But that would mean upseting sponsors and pre sold allocations for other such affiliations

It would be interesting to note that lets say another 30k fans end up buying tickets from touts then it losses out on a 30k ticket revenue then the FA has lost out on. (2 -3m pounds) Pretty bloody stupid and who ends up paying but the fans.

After reading Colin Potter’s post it made me realize I had a faulty memory. I think my ticket for the 1966 Final was 16/- not £6! Still seemed a lot of money then though! But still face value.

Absolute rubbish.

Any football match is about the two teams competing...and the supporters of that team who have a vested interest..whether it’s the final or the first round.

If the FA really wanted to do something for ’grass roots supporters’ then why don’t they buy them a ticket to a premiership match of their choosing throughout the season.

Dressing this up as a matter of ’grass roots’ is absolute bollocks..the majority of the tickets will go to the prawn sandwich brigade or to real supporters for a ridiculous price through corporate díck turpins.

You’re talking absolute shite mate. If the FA want to reward the "football family" they should give away tickets to England friendlies, which would be more relavent to more people than two teams hundred of miles from where they live. But hang on, those tickets wouldnt trade for such huge sums as a cup final ticket would they.

Brian, I have played for, managed and set up football clubs my whole life, but I’m not part of the football family. Even if I was, I wouldn’t dream of taking up a ticket to the FA cup final if Everton weren’t playing. The Cup final should be for the 2 sides who got there. How many of our precious football family were at Wembley for the friendly England v Slovakia game??? I was there. £55 ticket too. Leave the football family for England games, club football for the fans who would give a kidney for a ticket to the game (Im not a STH so am forced to find tickets for the final another way thanks to the FA).

Whats sobering is this. The semi final and final have the smallest ticket allocation for Evertonians for the cup this year bar only Macclesfield away and the first leg of the 4th round. Brian, I was at Moss Rose, Macclesfield too for the 3rd round but didn’t notice anyone from the football family there at that game. Probably a bit too cold.... shouldn’t every fan who went to that game get a chance to go to the final??? Why should any fan who braved the frost of Macclesfield (and dross on the pitch!) give up a seat to a neutral for the final???

Brian, while I agree that your post is factually correct I’m afraid I cannot agree that it is a good thing. The FA should look after the ’football family’ with England tickets (after all whoever gets them will actually have an interest in the game then) and leave the cup final tickets to the fans of the clubs.

The FA bang on about touts etc and expect fans to report touting but who in their right mind is going to report someone for selling them a ticket that they cannot get through the correct channels due to the FAs incompitence??!!

There are 150,000 grass roots clubs you say so instead of giving away 40,000 cup final tickets give 5,000 tickets for every home England international by my reckoning in 30 games, every club would have had a ticket.

The other option would have been to make Wembley bigger; 120,000 capacity would allow 40,000 give aways and 40,000 for each club still not perfect but a damn sight better than the rediculous situation we are in here.

The FA need to take a long hard look at themselves because this is nothing short of a disgrace.

NSNO!!!

Tickets for England games seems more appropriate.

So what that many of the tickets end of in the hands of "real fans"? Everton fans deserve to watch their team at Wembley. Or do all these "real fans" happen to follow Everton as well? Are they there every second weekend supporting the Blues?

Sorry Brian I think it’s you who is out of touch, not with the grassroots of football, but the grassroots of supporters. It’s a complete nonsense to restrict the supply of tickets to the genuine supporters of each team, there’s absolutely no moral argument to support this practice, end of. I have noticed blues turning on each other, match goers can’t get tickets and more casual supporters with the right connections can etc. It’s another disturbing aspect of this whole farce, but the real villain is the FA and I think that is where we need to channel our anger, not at each other. PS I haven’t got a ticket.

Brian - I think most people on this forum would accept that for a prestige, showpiece event like the FA cup final there are always going to be a number of tickets that will go to corporate hospitality, the football family etc. Let’s be realistic: if Wembley didn’t have any corporate facilities then they would have to charge five times the normal price for admission to pay for the stadium costs and corporate hospitality is important for business, commerce etc in the UK. Similarly, the FA has a duty to support grass roots football (which is often neglects, e.g. paying the England manager £6m a year whilst refusing to invest in youth programmes.......but that’s a different argument) and I have no problem with local, amateur, or youth clubs getting the odd ticket here or there. Even if you don’t support this viewpoint it is the way it’s always been.

However, the issue, surely, is the amount. 45% of tickets for the final will not be going to Everton or Chelsea supporters. This is ludicrous. How many hangers-on in the football family are there? It shouldn’t be a right for sponsors, or amateur clubs, or youth teams to go, it should be a PRIVILEGE, just like it is for the supporters of the clubs involved!

Personally I think if Everton and Chelsea were given 35,000 tickets each that would leave 20,000 over. 13,000 would be Club Wembley tickets, leaving 7,000 for the football family. More than enough in my opinion. If we got 35,000 tickets then we could cover all STH, 1,000 ish to dish out to the supporters clubs, another couple of thousand to go to non-STH shareholders, staff, the players’ families etc, leaving a few thousand at the end for a ballot amongst the loyal supporters who follow Everton regularly, but aren’t season ticket holders. If this was the case I don’t think anyone from either club (in fact any club in the country for that matter) would have too many complaints.

Brian, what utter rubbish. I’m sorry mate but the FA cup final IS about the 2 teams competing for the trophy. I suppose next you’re going to say it doesn’t matter who wins on the day because football is the real winner!

The FA now stages every world cup home England qualifier and friendly at Wembley. They have every opportunity to hand out tickets for major showcase events that a lot of TRUE fans don’t give a shit about. There has been a lot made about the magic of the FA cup being lost and this is why.

I know for a fact that clubs in League 2 (4th Division) have been handed out 30 tickets each. Can Brian please tell me what affiliation Grimsby Town have with either club or the FA Cup Final and justify why the fuck they deserve 30 tickets when thousands of loyal Evertonians won’t be going? Grass roots my arse. Send them to England v Croatia and keep the FA Cup for the real fans.

We all have a favourite family member. Mine’s Arthur Albiston. At least, his name was stamped on the back of the ticket I got for the 1986 final.

Brian - in theory I think your argument has a sound principle behind it that, like most things in life, doesn’t work out in practice due to human nature.

If I was part of "the football family" I wouldn’t want a ticket out of principle a) because I wouldn’t want to go on my todd as a neutral and
b) would feel a right selfish twat surrounded by supporters of someones else club knowing I’d deprived one of their fans of an experience they would appreciate far more than I ever could.

So - either way, the tickets are either going to be sold on or end up with people with only a passing interest in the game, which by the way is also going to devalue the whole atmosphere - further affecting the real fans of the two teams involved.

Lets face it, its no different to the old school tie brigade.

Nick Entwhistles suggestion of England games is a decent shout.

So 150,000 clubs in this "football family" or so? 40,000 tickets doesnt cover that? Join the club because 25,000 hardly covers the season ticket holders of our club. Its a lottery, you get one, you dont get one. Why set out to try and please more people not affliated with either club that the actual clubs themselves?


Why doesnt the FA just to what they do to the football clubs - allocate less, make them create a "criteria" to be met to be allocated a ticket, and then bump the price up? If, like the other poster said, a certain amount of tickets cost 47k, why not put it up to £55k? What’s a few grand to businesses? They do it with the fans who cant really afford it, so why not the companies that can?


Nobody argues that the FA have to pay for the stadium. What is getting peoples goat is the amount allocated to outside the clubs.

Apparently its a lot easier to get a ticket in the Chelsea end (i wouldnt fancy it myself)

Why not ask "Sir Bobby Charlton" for some tickets I seem to recall he has previous for selling his "football family" tickets

I would be interested to know exactly what the ’football family’ consists of. Although there might be a large number of tickets going to grassroots and other Wembly Season ticket holders I suspect that there will be a larger amount going to the FA corporate sponsors. The ’football family’ is just a nice little slogan at best but I believe its simply that; a cosy front to an otherwise cynical ploy by the FA to dish out tickets to all the money people that pat each other on the back in one big circle jerk!
For me the fact that both Everton and Chelsea get such a small allocation of tickets for their fans (although interestingly I think I read recently that Chelsea will be allocating their tickets to their corporate season ticket holders first - which if correct, speaks volumes) is really appalling! If anyone ever tries to tell you that fans matter to the football money men you need to look no further than this episode to put them in their place!

Brian, you finish by saying..

"..but most are used by real football ’fans’"

This is (to me) where the problem lies - the concept of being a ’real football fan’.

It’s a general term that suggests to me, someone who never goes to a game and doesn’t SUPPORT anyone.

(well...probably calls him/herself a United/L’pool supporter but "I also likes to see - Insert name of local 1st Div side - do well". Oh and is also a ’Barcelona fan’)

Basically someone who watches a lot of football on TV but has no REAL allegiance to any one team.

(a Sky-fan, somene who thinks Tim Lovejoy ’knows his stuff’)

Nothing wrong in that (I suppose) but surely the FA Cup final is a(nother) game this person can watch (and after flogging their tickets, almost certainly WILL watch) on telly.

So, why the fuck should they be able to get their hands on a ticke, that someone who DOES have an allegiance to just one side and DOES actually spend time and money following that side, if/when that side reaches the final?

There is NO justification for 40,000 people who are niether Everton or Chelsea supporters, getting hold of tickets for this game.

None whatsoever.

I would NEVER describe myself as a ’fan of football’.

I am an Evertonian and...that’s it.

And if the 40,000 are the ’family of football, I hope I’m adopted.

As most games in rounds 3 to 6 of the FA Cup are rarely sold out , what is wrong with getting say 5% of the ground given up to those people who do voluntary work for the FA or pehaps reward them with free Sky sports packages for a season.
The FA’s approach is a 19th century policy in a 21st century setting.

Brian Baker how can you possibly defend the FA for this. They abuse football supporters to death. They way they have treated fans when it comes to Finals for years has been nothing short of disgraceful. Isn’t the FA Cup meant to be the fans final? So you are telling me that the other 40,000 in the ground will be dying to see the game on May 30th or indeed next year for that matter. The exploitation of football fans is despicable. But you know what the only way anything will be done about this is if fans of both clubs boycott the final but that they know will never happen, especially not this year when our fans are so desperate to be their. Ok if you want to give 10,000 tickets away to whoever maybe fair enough but 40,000! No way will I accept this terrible arguement/defensiveness of the FA.
If an Evertonian can’t get a ticket out of 40,000 available then that is just unfortunate but when even season ticket holders can’t get tickets for love or money something is seriously wrong here. I for 1 am speaking as someone who hasn’t seen Everton in an Fa Cup Final. The only consolation for me was that I was there in the Semi.

Good luck getting on the web site to register.... :-(

I thought this post would stir up a hornets nest.

Having been an Everton season ticket holder throughout the harsh 90s for over 10 years, I appreciate alot of the comments made and do share in alot of your frustrations.

Just for a moment try and put yourself in the postition of the FA and and think of a better system instead of just moaning about the sorry situation.

It may need new laws passed by the government to make sales of ’event’ tickets over and above the face value illegal. Such a law would make so called honest organisations on the Web and touts think twice before attempting to make such huge profits out of ’real’ football fans.

Maybe tickets should be like airline tickets and have a name associated with each ticket, so the holder would be forced to bring ID with him / her.
Making onward selling more difficult.

Nothing gets on my wick more than spectators at the cup final or any other game who are not concerned who wins so long as its, ’the best team’.

You also find them in the local park with their condescending supercillious, ’I am not biased so I must be right’ attitude.

I would rather have knock em down drag em out argument with a rabid Red.
Metaphorically speaking of course.

Brian you say...

"Just for a moment try and put yourself in the postition of the FA and and think of a better system instead of just moaning about the sorry situation".

Fair enough.

Erm......ok, 40,000 to each team and 10,000 to the (disfunctional) ’family of football’.

There - lemon squeezy!

Remember, there’ll be NO right-minded Sheff Wed/Arsenal/Derby etc supporters going - "Bastard! Looks like I’m not going to get a ticket to the Chelsea-Everton Cup final!"

Fact: The ONLY people who WILL say/think this, will be Everton supporters, Chelsea supporters or greedy self-serving bastards trying to flog those tickets.

Why don’t the F.A. put a levy on the ticket price and at the same time ( substantially ) increase the allocation to the fans of the finalists.
The levy money is then put towards grass-roots football.
That way, everyone benefits.The fans pay more for their tickets ( which most will currently do now except it goes to touts ) but they can see the money being put to use at grass-roots.

"Just for a moment try and put yourself in the postition of the FA and and think of a better system instead of just moaning about the sorry situation."

Ok, 40,000 to each finalist, 10,000 reserved for whatever the FA want to do with them. The FA can also offer its 150,000 affiliated clubs tickets to England games, England U-21 games, foreign friendlies on English turf, FA Cup semi finals, anything they like really. Just not the FA Cup final, which is rightly and indisputably about two clubs, two sets of fans.

Brian, can you please reply to some of the big questions in this thread? For example, what have the 150,000 affiliated clubs got to do with the FA Cup final in particular? Why do they need tickets for the FA Cup final? Why not England games?

ill keep this short and simple

absolute nonsense brain, the only people that should be in that stadium on final day is everton fans and chelsea fans!!!

For the last 14 years I could bearly bring myself to watch the FA Cup final on the telly because Everton were not playing in it. If offered a ticket during these years I wouldn?t have gone.

I reckon most real football fans are the same. What the FA have to realise is that most genuine people are not "football supporters", they only have a real interest in their Club and everything else to do with football revolves around their Club.

I couldn?t even be arsed watching the Barcelona v Chelsea match last night. All I wanted to know was how many Chelsea players got injured for the FA Cup final. This is what real football supporters think.

There are 17,000 Club Wembley seats at the new stadium. You purchase a 10 year licence for a one-off fee and renew each season.

I don’t know if these are sold out but this figure would leave approx. 23,000 for the so called "football family."

Brian Barwick and his cronies would have known the approximate allocations for Cup finals etc. before the stadium was built, taking into consideration 17,000 seats were to be auctioned off in this way. These are the people who have contributed most to the heartache of loyal Evertonians. How the fuck can you biuld a national stadium and ringfence 17000 seats for the rich. It’s a disgrace.

I am just trying see things from a different perspective. The FA cup has lots of rounds, involving lots of other clubs, its not just about the final.

Wearing my blue tinted specs I would love to see 70,000 baying everton fans in the ground, but football is never that easy.

Its also FAs showcase of English football, not just about 2 teams and 2 sets of fans.

Brian---------WHAT A CROCK OF SHITE!!!!!!!


I cant even be bothered to reda other peoples responses but I’m sure they are the same as mine. That ticket that you raffle off to raise funds for your club really does keep you afloat doesn’t it. I gaurantee that of the 27,000 footie family tickets at least 50% will be bought by EFC / CFC fans for stupid money. Its knobs like you that are helping tickets get into touts hands. Most people who win a raffle would be looking to sell it on for a few quid. You are given the ticket as part of the football family to attend the game. THE FA CUP FINAL IS NOT A FUCKING CHARITY EVENT!!!!!!


PRICK!!!

I received this e-mail from the FA today in response to an e-mail I sent regarding my disatisfaction with the allocation of Tickets.

Thank you for contacting The Football Association.

The FA aims to make as many tickets as possible available to supporters
of both participating clubs whilst ensuring that people involved with
running football at all levels have the opportunity to share in
football’s showpiece event. At a recent meeting held with FA Cup
finalists Chelsea FC and Everton FC, it was agreed that The FA will
provide each club with an allocation of approximately 25,000 tickets for
the game at Wembley on 30 May. Aside from seats for members of Club
Wembley, 70% of the remaining tickets will be provided to the two clubs
to distribute.

The remaining 30% of tickets have been allocated to people involved in
the grassroots of football and the football family. These tickets will
go to the 92 Premier League and Football League clubs, the 134 Full
Member clubs, other clubs who reached the Third Round of this season’s
competition, charities, sponsors, the Football Foundation, Premier
League, Football League, Football Conference, PFA, International
Associations, FIFA, UEFA and County Football Associations.

The FA Cup Final is a unique sporting event with the demand for tickets
always great. It is undoubtedly the biggest domestic cup final in the
world and as such it belongs to the whole country as well as the two
competing teams and their supporters. It is also an occasion to reward
the thousands of individuals who give up their time and energy to
football, without whom the grassroots game would not function.

We do appreciate all of the feedback we receive from supporters. This
feedback is collated and used to build a picture of public opinion and
is subsequently fed back internally within the organisation. Please rest
assured your comments will form part of this feedback process.

Sorry Brian, I think you are wrong in this

?The FA Cup final is not just about the 2 clubs playing at the final, its about every affiliated club and player in the country, the so called ’football family’" - no it’s not - it’s about us and Chelsea. This should be our day and a reward to the fans who shell out hundreds every season for their club ? not for people who have no allegiance to the clubs involved.

However, this is not a new problem, but one which should not exist in the new purpose built Wembley. The stadium is very smart, but does not have a big enough capacity. It also cost far too much to build - hence the vital importance of the corporate income

The FA Family can have tickets to the other events held at Wembley (England matches, the gigs, american footy etc). They can have tickets for matches in the earlier rounds of the tournament. They can tickets for the FA Vase final. But they should only get a small percentage of FA Cup semi-final and FA Cup final tickets and they should definitely not get more tickets than either club taking part in the final.

Wow!

That is an INCREDIBLY long-winded way of saying "Fuck off Anthony, we really don’t give a shite"

Ian Cambell, your personal remarks are not really being helpful, so I will ignore them.

My concern at the time of raffling the said FA cup ticket, was making ends meet in the football club I was helping to run, as well as raising money for the British Heart Foundation. I think it was a ManU v Arsenal final, so going myself was not my first choice, particulaly on my own.
Some years, club officers have attended a cup final using the ’free’ ticket, but it largely depends who is playing. I actually attended the all Mersey cup final using the ’free’ ticket.
A condition of getting the tickets from the FA is that we are not allowed to sell them, so the choices are giving them to a ’fan’ in the club, or raffling.

I won the draw at my Cheshire League club in 1987, the year we were denied history by being mugged by Wimbledon.
I didn’t want it, nor did anyone else at the club so I sent the ticket to Coventry (no, I don’t mean I wouldn’t talk to it!)
I’ve always presumed most Blues were like me - Everton first and always; no second-favourite team; wouldn’t watch England for free if they played in Sefton Park
Why anyone would want to see a game in which they had no interest or bias is beyond me
I emailed the Out the Touts site asking for the names of the FA officials who sent tickets to other than EFC and Chelsea promising to ’out’ them. Strangely, I’ve not had a reply
By the way, Brian, I actively support the British and US film industry at grass-roots level - I don’t get, or expect, tickets for the Oscars or BAFTAs

Out the touts Campaign - just a couple ot things to ponder:

1) if a "tout is outted" and it proves to be someone who has pre-paid their seat at Wembley for the next 15 years are the FA going to tell them where to go?

2) why dont the FA buy the tickets from the touts themselves rather than asking us to shell out and "let them know"!! surely they have access to these websites as do the police - my understanding is its a criminal offence so what are the police doing.

Brian - you set yourself up for this. Your stance re ticketing is indefensible, yet you haven’t even tried to answer the plethra of questions that this thread have put at your door. Answer the questions. Defend the FA. Do something. At the moment, you have your opinion, and you are not embelishing any further. Did you get offered a ticket for Macclesfield v Everton, Jan 2009, cold and fecking coooold? Why not? Its the same competition. The FA Cup. Its either the magical competition you and the FA want us to believe it is, or its about Everton v someone. 25,000 tickets is a disgrace. More Evertonians watched us beat Boro in the quarters. More watched us beat Villa in round 5. More at the replay v the shyte.

Out the tout.... how did the tout get his ticket! From the likes of you Brian.

Anthony Dyer

Yeah, I got the same reply. I didn’t post it because I’ve never learned how to cut and paste!

I was invited to reply (at the end of the e-mail) but the link the FA provide just takes you to a page to create a log-in identity and to join FA Fan Club (or something!) I couldn’t be arsed.

My reply would have been something like....’what kind of a response is that you supercilious twats!’

Probably another good reason not to log in!

Brian - It is clear that many people strongly disagree with your opinion and whilst I feel some have over stepped the line with personal attacks, I must agree with the majority and ask you to respond to some of the questions raised. Some people want to understand where you’re coming from but so far your further posts have not done this.

For example you said in your last post "A condition of getting the tickets from the FA is that we are not allowed to sell them, so the choices are giving them to a ?fan? in the club, or raffling." - So exactly how do they ensure that you don’t sell it? There’s no point putting an unenforceable condition on the ticket!! How did you ensure that the person who won the raffle didn’t then sell the ticket on for a huge profit? You didn’t because you couldn’t. Hence you really don’t know whether you have contributed to the touting problem.

Secondly, in an earlier post you said - "The FA cup has lots of rounds, involving lots of other clubs, its not just about the final" - How can you say that? Have the two teams (and by association the fans that pay to watch all the games) not earned the right, by beating all the teams they’ve been drawn against, for the FINAL to be about THEM! Next you’ll be rolling out the old chestnut "It’s not the winning, it’s the taking part". Yeah, tell that to all the Evertonians who won’t be able to go to their first cup final for 14 years! That doesn’t wash!

I totally support your attitude that the FA should be rewarding, encouraging and supporting grass roots, but are they really doing this? Wouldn’t you prefer some sort of direct subsidy rather than a ticket for a final that most times you won’t give a flying fuck about?

Why is it all about the FA Cup Final? As others have pointed out, what about all the other events and games?

I understand your view to an extent and you are coming from a position that many can’t relate to. However, it is a weak defense of the shear number of tickets that are given to totally anonymous people. The FA have absolutely NO IDEA where these tickets end up. The "football family" is a term that basically means anyone else bar the real fans of the clubs who have battled through 5 rounds to earn the right to be at Wembley. I agree that a percentage will always have to go to corporate, charity, promotional people, but when you already have 17,000 tickets ring fenced for Club Wembley members then you can’t take another 23,000 for the above.

Finally, you asked people to come up with alternatives to the current system instead of just pointing out the failures of the existing allocation. Look a bit closer at the posts above your statement. Quite a few people have fielded alternative ideas. To the point where you have repeated a suggestion in the very same post. Names on tickets!

It is highly unlikely that I will be able to secure a ticket. It will take a long time (especially if we win) for me to come to terms with that, but eventually I will. However, the fact that there aren’t even enough tickets for all the season ticket holders is a fucking disgrace! If was a STH I would be livid!

COYB!!!!

Brian, I have been reading and writing on Toffeeweb for a good few years now. Some pretty silly things have been written, no doubt by me too at times. However, I can honestly say that yours is the only set of arguments that I have seen that has no discernible logic or merit whatsoever and is 100% RUBBISH. Congratulations!

Couldn’t agree more Neil. This is the biggest pile of shite I’ve read on TW.

The FA cannot justify this decision and I’m glad Elstone has publicly lambasted them for it. I can understand the corporate 13,000 from a business point of view, but I don’t understand how the FA can deny thousands of true hardened fans a dream day at Wembley and still preach crap about ’the football family’.

The whole situation is shocking and needs an overhaul. If anyone is willing to organise a protest I’ll fall in behind you.

Cup Final Tickets Here...
http://www.1st4footballtickets.com/Tickets/SelectTickets.aspx?Q=5d0L7fKK%2fOEPt9L5Ydb1Ww%3d%3d

"Football Family" my arse. Or is it a piss take?

Mike Wear

Just looked at that website. Fucking disgrace. And why are the Everton tickets so much more expensive than the Chelsea ones? They must know we are better supporters and more likely to pay such ridiculous prices.

Brian Baker.

Is it not time to come clean? Are you an FA plant drilled to quieten us all down pretending to be a Blue with your oh so reasonable explanation of why the FA are really doing us all such a gigantic favour?