FA needs to urgently rethink policy on FA Cup semi-finals after rows empty seats

Can you imagine that you are a Taylor Swift performance and find rows and rows of empty seats? Exactly, it wouldn't happen.

But last weekend, for an opportunity for showpiece in the Wembley Stadium, there were banks of seats with no one in it.

It was far from a sale and the FA urgently needs to reconsider their policy in relation to the semi -final of FA Cup.

Push finally came to push when the simple economy of attending matches in the capital last Sunday as Manchester City against Nottingham Forest, two large clubs many kilometers from Wembley, clashed for a place in the final.

What greeted the millions of armchair viewers around the world, would like to tune into the oldest football competition of all? Thousands of unused plastic red seats.

First of all it is not good. TV companies will not be happy with this.

Trying to sell a tournament if there are empty seats in abundance is difficult, if not impossible and it damages the image of the competition.

A lot is said about the 'magic' of the FA Cup, but the TV reporting on Sunday will ask many to ask why fans do not appear.

This is not an excavation in the city at all. They are one of the best supported clubs, but can only shift 27,000 of their 36,230 allocation.

This was their 29th Wembley trip since the stadium was renovated in 2007, so that you can understand why a touch of fatigue of London started.

Ticket prices cost between £ 30 and £ 150 and then you have the 400-Mile return.

Throw in food and drink, plus the Russian roulette of catching a train and you can see why thousands of die-hard fans said that is enough.

Two clubs ask to travel so far from their fan base is not only expensive, it is also illogical.

Why not use much closer high -quality locations, such as Villa Park or Old Trafford.

Wembley must be reserved for the final. You may think that is traditionalist, but some traditions are worth keeping.

It always had a real appearance and it was a kind of footballing El Dorado.

By placing semi -finals there, the FA has diluted their own competition, resulting in more than 17,000 empty seats on Sunday.

It is not as if this was a rare event, because the 2023 FA Cup semi-final between City and Sheffield United United attracted less than 70,000 in the stadium of 90,000 capacity of Wembley.

In 2019, just over 71,000 attended the semi -final between Brighton and City.

I think that both common sense and a common decency are needed. When two clubs from the capital meet in a semi -final of FA Cup, I can see the logic to host it at Wembley.

But dragging Noorderlingen hundreds of kilometers to London, with the enormous costs, seems complete madness.

Football must take care of its traditions and nothing more than the FA Cup that, since it started in 1871, has seen 44 different clubs lift the famous trophy.

It was won by Blackpool and Burnley, Wimbledon and Wigan and the FA Cup must be cherished and respected.

Perhaps the most famous FA Cup gigantic goal of all the Screamer of Ronnie Radford to help Niet League Hereford in the 1970s in the 1970s.

Ronnie's reaction has fallen in folklore while he celebrated his hands up, belly out, with a big mouth in disbelief.

The fans' reaction showed what it meant for the good people of Hereford. Wouldn't have been the same with rows of empty seats, right?

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