Arsenal have criticised The FA’s decision to allocate Gunners supporters just 25,000 tickets for the FA Cup final against Hull City on 17 May.
Disappointed that a large proportion of the club’s 45,000 season ticket holders will miss out on the showpiece occasion because 37,000 tickets are held back for members of the ‘football family’ and those with access to Club Wembley, Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis stated:
“We fully understand this is the showpiece FA fixture to celebrate the game as a whole, but we also believe the loyal supporters of the competing teams deserve a greater chance to see their team play in what is one of the biggest matches of the season. The balance in the FA’s allocation system is not right.
“Arsenal have approximately 45,000 season ticket holders and 150,000 members, many of whom come to games.
“They all give us their loyal support throughout a season but with the FA Cup final allocation at 25,000 there will be many disappointed Arsenal fans, who have supported the Club home and away for years, who will be unable to get a ticket to this historic match.”
Eager for supporters unable to attend Wembley to experience a large-scale atmosphere, the club have confirmed they will show the game on giant screens at the Emirates with fans seated in the lower tier of the stadium.
“We want this to be a special day for Arsenal fans wherever they are,” continued Gazidis. “The screening will be a great way for thousands of our supporters who are unable to get to Wembley to watch the match together at Emirates Stadium.”
A throwback to the days of the Highbury jumbotron on the pitch in front of the North Bank beckons!
The club also confirmed that the allocation of FA Cup final tickets will follow three basic principles:
1) Members of the Away Scheme (Away Season Ticket Subscription) will be guaranteed a ticket, provided they are registered members during the relevant season of the particular cup final and so long as they purchase in their priority period.
2) Platinum and Gold members who have attended 3 or more away fixtures registered to their current 2013/14 membership, will be guaranteed a ticket as long as they purchase in their priority period. This will be based on the past two consecutive seasons from August 13, 2011 – April 7, 2014.
3) The majority of tickets will be allocated to the balance of Platinum and Gold Members. Successful applicants will be determined by a random ballot.
Fucking F.A. Still FA Cup is going to the Emirates. COYG!!!!!
I feel so bad for you guys. I can’t imagine what it must be like.
I’m from Malaysia, so I guess I can’t go either way 🙁
Really love your username…
Only if it was easy like mine
i’m glad arsenal have come out and said something against this. when the chief of the FA comes out and basically says the reason they hold the semis at wembley is because of money you already know the final was going to be restricted to a small amount for the real fans. everyone complains about wenger being too stubborn financially but then complains when money ruins the game for the average fan. well here it is, here is the fa openly saying they consider money more important than the love of the game. be grateful that we still have a… Read more »
you do realise we have the most expensive tickets and have increased prices by 3% next year?!
And they wonder why the cup has lost it’s magic
Best comment ever.
All i want to know is why did the first 4 comments get 1 thumb down each?
I going to use my parachute, and pay fuck all
How gentle from the FA to remind us what kind of greedy twats they are, just in case someone didn’t know/forgot.
Might make my first ever trip to the Emirates if they are showing the game there
This is a real shame. A few friends and I were planning a trip from Dubai but with news like this it definitely reduces our chances to absolutely zero. Spare a thought for us who actually wanna travel to see our team in action and don’t stand a chance. Pity really.
Tossers
Would the seats in the Emirates be for season ticket holders?
Wow. As a 6 year red member, I had no chance of ever going to Wembley so had written that off- but going to the Emirates with all you crazy bastards to watch the biggest game of the season? Amazing! It’s got to be done! Thankyou Arsenal!
… do you think they will allow alcohol on the terraces for the virtual game?
Fookin get everyone on the pitch, whack some big screens up on the clock end, and replicate that ‘Wimbledon Hill’ have a picnic, BYOB ‘day out’ feel. COME ON.
There’s more chance of them showing the game on large screens at White Hart Lane than Wenger allowing your size twelves on the holy ground at the Emirates.
Severely doubt it
What was with the gaping holes in the crowd on the lower tier on sat evening…Corporates not turning up?
I fortunately or unfortunately was stuck in with the corporates for the CL final in Paris – talk about a passion killer! Get rid of them in my opinion,put them in a lovely luxurious room with all their favourite delicacies with the best of everything and leave the match to the fans.
It may look better to have those seats filled, but to the genuine fans in or around them, its a pure passion killer.
The only gaping hole in the stands this weekend was in the Wigan section. There was a large gap in the top tier of their section also.
We were there in force, it was like the emirates.
I reckon there must have been 70,000 of us.
What a joke, it’s not quite FIFA level bullshit, but it’s still ridiculous.
Expect about 3,000 of that 37,000 allocation to actually be occupied.
But your the crazyiest of us all Indrossi, see u there I be the one wearing an arsenal jersey
For those who can’t get into Wembley or the jumbotron…
Is it worth going to a pub down by Highbury to watch it for beers and atmosphere?
Or stay at home and not risk having a Fellani blocking the view?
i went to the pubs around Highbury for the CL final. I’ll never forget getting drenched by the beer raining down from the fans jumping after Sol scored.. Amazing.
The rest of the day I’ve had surgically removed from my memory.
Don’t you remember? Barcelona were about to bring on Henrik Larrson, and then for some inexplicable reason, the game was abandoned, and no winner was crowned that year….
I’m tempted to head down to a pub to watch it. depedns if they allow alcohol on the stands for the emirates screening
Might be worth pub hopping a little to soak up the best of the atmosphere. I was at The Globe at Baker Street before the semi-final on Saturday and it was buzzing – a great Wembley pub.
So perhaps start there and then head to Highbury/Finsbury area to watch the game. The atmosphere at The Twelve Pins pub was amazing last time I went there to watch a game.
I’m tempted by the screening at The Emirates, but based on previous away game screenings I’m not sure if the atmosphere would be better than watching it at an Arsenal pub…
I went to one of the pubs by Finsbury Station for the FA Cup final against utd back in 05! Was effing incredible. I was only 16 but almost got drunk on the beer that flew around the pub when Paddy’s peno went in! Dancing in the street around the busses was incredible.
Definitely worth it Big Dave, been in local pubs for smaller games than this and experienced electric atmospheres. Can only imagine what they’d be like for a game of this magnitude
Good on ya Ivan. If I don’t have any luck with getting a ticket to the final (which is very likely), watching the match with all the Gooners at the Emirates is a brilliant alternative 🙂
If I sit 3 inches away from my 19inch screen, it will feel like I’m really there! Thanks FA!
How nice of gazidis to critisize the FA. Pot kettle black comes to mind. Who is he to say it’s not fair on the fans. Neither is 3%, you money grabbing tosser
In all seriousness, what do you think their rules will be for bringing alcohol in to the stands?
Its not going to happen… They are not going to want to allow a precedadent to be set of people embibing alcohol and then being merry and nothing bad happening.
Parachute? that will be funniest… no offence but literally laughing. lol
As much as the FA are a bunch of John Terrys, the only way they could pay for the new wembly stadium was to sell most of the seats to corporates so this shouldn’t really come as a surprise.
Hoping to go but don’t look like I can and I now live in hull some going down the pub is out so the fa are killing the oldst cup in the world 🙁
you think the FA is obsessed with money? Check out the NCAA in the U.S. just signed 10.8 billion $ broadcast deal and they don’t even pay their players. But yeah, fuck the FA too.
If AFC PLC really were concerned about our loyal supporters they’d open the gates and let us all in free. However, I think you’ll find the fa are not the only greedy organisation!
Remember watching a couple of games against sp*rs on the big screens at Highbury. It was like actually being at the game.
Does anyone know if these Emirates tickets will be just for season ticket holders/members and how much these tickets will cost? (Back in the day it was like a tenner to get in)
If I can’t get a ticket for the big screen, you’ll find me in The Gunners pub, I’ll be wearing an Arsenal shirt so come over and say hello if your there too. 😉
Yet another historical day of football taken away from the man in the street.
Shame on the FA. Keep the corporates sweet and f*ck the honest and decent supporter.
Lots of (understandably) disgruntled fans recently who have made noise about Wenger and claimed that the fans built the stadium and the club. To some extent yes. But remember had it not been for Wenger transforming Arsenal and winning all those trophies (doubles + unbeaten) in the first half of his tenure, there would not be the added fan base to built this club with. Also his frugality in the market buy low sell high acumen has ensured steady profits for the club without burdening the team with added debt that would have likewise made it extremely difficult to built… Read more »
The allocation is shit, but it’s nothing new. The FA has always taken 30-40% of the FA Cup Final tickets, at least since I started going in the seventies.
Talking of which, I’ll remember the 1979 final forever – but I have no idea where we finished in the league that year or who we lost to that season. And I don’t care.
Cup final trumps league position every time – unless it’s first!
i remember the 1979 cup final very well , it was my first cup final my dad took me too frank stapleton being my hero at the time,remember going to 1980 one as well when we lost to west ham, my mum and dad have been season ticket holders for over 45 years never miss a home game but because they dont go away games cant get a ticket, best thing i will do is watch it in the pub to get a good atmosphere , it will be my 7 year olds first experience cup final hope its A… Read more »
Ol’ Ivan will be rubbing his grubby hands together at the thought of thousands of captive Gooners buying multiple thousands of pints of the watered down piss they call ‘beer’ at the stadium!
Ker-CHING!
Then i wont be Clark Kent for that one day.
Well, I’ve got no chance of a ticket then because I haven’t been to any away games.
I like the parachute idea that someone had. Let’s club together and do thousands of Olympics style James Bond drops from planes into the empty corporate seats that have been allocated to business people who won’t even be arsed to turn up.
Or, more practically, let’s all just stick a finger up to the FA, head to the Emirates and cheer the team on from there, en masse.
Please can they let us drink beer. We will need it.
Dissapointed. But looks like as a ST holder i’ll have to go to the pub to watch the final then. Or, I could go to the Emirates to experience it with 60,000 other Gooners, only for Ivan and his mob to charge us for watching the screening there lol
Exactly. Yes Fuck the FA but let’s not pretend Arsenal are any different in how they go about their business.
I will be at the grove with my fuck the F.A banner, find me.
Well you know what they say, once you go F.A you forever go cunt.
ok I just made that up.
Don’t watch it at the emirates, go and watch it some of the local pubs around highbury and finsbury park. The normal match rules will apply, ie no beer. The food will be expensive and let’s be honest the club take more than enough money from us already. Go and support a local gooner run businesses, you’ll get the same if not better atmosphere and better booze. the club does not need more money from us. I appreciate the gesture but would recommend those who are thinking of doing it, got to the great pubs in the area instead. I’ll… Read more »
Do they still do greyhound racing at Wembley on a Friday night? If so go to that then sleep in the bogs overnight, that’s what the Scots used to try before the home internationals!!!
The FA Cup brings back a lot of memories. Crying as a 7 year old after Ipswich beat us. Running down the street shouting ”We’ve won the cup!” after Alan Sunderland’s dramatic winner (hence the avatar). It being the only live game on TV with a three hour build up. A few fellow gooners from school coming around for the day and watching it on TV consuming stupid amounts of crisps, chocolate and coca cola after we saved our pocket money for the big day. Jumpers for goalposts etc. Remember not being able to go to the final vs West… Read more »
Typical F.A, forgetting about the passionate fans of both teams, in order to fill their pockets with a quick quid. Either way, I’ll be watching the game from a pub in Melbourne, filled with fellow Gooners.
Just means that x 10,000 of tkts on the unofficial market.
It’s about time,go guys make us proud
I get that they want to make this football’s day, not just Arsenal and Hull’s, but surely it obvious that the people who care to the most are the fans of those two clubs? I’ll tell you what’ll happen – there will be neutrals who will get tickets and sell them for ridiculous amounts of money to fans who can’t get tickets to see their club play. What does that tell you?
Checking online the cheapest hotel/ticket package is 595 quid up to over a grand per person. Let’s say the hotel is 220 quid. That means the tickets are around 400 quid upwards. The FA are making a killing and don’t give a fuck. Same old. And they want us to be angry that they didn’t get the World Cup. Couldn’t care less if we never hosted it again. The FA mugs will do the same with tickets for the final, semis, opening match and any England games. England doesn’t deserve a world cup, due to our greedy leeches at the… Read more »
My bet is that those 37,000 “football family” seats will become available to the general public. If the FA makes more money on those or not who knows. I guess they were trying not to give Arsenal, with their vastly larger fan base, too much of a “home field” crowd advantage. But hopefully all you local Gunners will turn those seats red and white. COYG!
Does anyone know what the deal is with the screening I’m coming up from Brighton and can’t seem to find any info anywhere regarding this, unless it hasn’t been released yet or I’m just being dumb.
The irony is I’d rather go to Emirates than Wembley to watch it. No inbred away fans, just a whole lotta love! And fuck the FA they can stick that big hunk of crap back up their massive arsenholes!
I’m a gunner from Rwanda.I believe it will be a special date