Arsenal’s trip to Old Trafford in the FA Cup 6th round will be played at 7.45pm on Monday 9 March. Yep, Monday. A f*cking Monday.
The fixture has been selected for broadcast on BBC One…who’ve obviously given no shits whatsoever about the travelling fans who’ll struggle to return home as there are currently no trains scheduled to leave Manchester for London after the game.
A statement from Arsenal on the issue reveals the club are considering their options.
“In the wake of this announcement, the club is exploring a number of options to help our travelling supporters get back to London afterwards.
“No return trains are currently timetabled and we will let supporters know the proposed travel plans as soon as possible.”
Let’s hope the club puts on coaches for all those making the trip north. As it’s the FA Cup we’ll have a bigger allocation than usual.
Congratulations to the Big British Castle for another major FA Cup selection cock-up.
All we need now is Alan Sugar to be named the referee and this will be the perfect fixture.
Newcastle would be sure to equalise
I seem to feel there’s no coincidence that the BBC is now in Manchester…
Yeah so stupid especially as the Saturday game is a Local derby between Aston Villa and West Brom so that fixture could have been played at another time and we could have had that slot, but I guess that would have been far to accommodating and logical.
That said , the Picture and THAT Banner is fucking Legendary.. I remember it like it was yesterday oh how I laughed when I saw it. Was almost delirious when it turned out that it was true.
It ain’t news that the BBC have a hardon for AFC. What matters is that we WIN and with a BIG margin too. Thenafter, we can watch them sulk in silence and cry in the corners of their bedrooms (if they have any).
COYG!!!!
Maybe Wayne Rooney can arrange something from his friends over in the fantasy land from Shrek.
He’s already arranged for donkey to get the managers job. Let’s just hope there’s a happy ever after for us as we’ve got Prince Charming on a good scoring run.
To be fair, 60.000 united fans have to travel up as well…
Zing.
Hahaha.. That made me crack up
Car share?
Will be there, even if it means walking all the way back 🙂 COYG.
I was really looking forward to watching this match. Bloody Monday. Ridiculous
It’s on the telly or are you working that night mate?
🙂
Main thing is to beat those shit kickers of Man U. No draw, nothing, just beat them in front of their fans. Do not mind anything else, COYG.
Maybe we can use their diving board and springboard back home
gah ffs what a shit piece of scheduling
all those poor united fans won’t be able to get back to surrey
There must be some way of getting the FA or whichever fuckwits decided this to reverse their decision. It’s absolutely ridiculous, there’s not even any justification as to why they’ve landed on it being a Monday. A petition or something?! Do redaction have any direct contact with them?
Sorry, I meant to post this as a new comment rather than jumping on yours with an entirely unrelated set of questions..
It will never happen but the only way you can demonstrate is by not going.
I would encourage Arsenal fans not to attend the match and leave big empty spaces for the cameras to see love but fans love the club too much and will find a way to get there and back.
if we do that we’d be inviting ourselves to the ever so fucking omnipresent “look at how many empty seats there are” line from the fucking commentators. and we’d still watch on tv.
Our away fans will be there … one way or another.
Don’t the United cunts need to get back to London as well?
Surrey surely ?
Arsenal v Utd and BBC!
yet again they bang on about the ‘traditional, magic, sacred’ FA Cup and fuck about with it.
Fuck those dimwits
Why play this game on a Monday night? Absolutely stupid. There are four cup games to show, surely have two on Saturday and two on Sunday, simple.
Both United and Arsenal fans need to get back to London that night(!). Where’s the sense?
Magic of the cup my arse.
If you ONLY had two options after the game:
Thumbs up if you would stay the night in Manchester sharing a bed with Rooney and Vanpersie (who are both naked and havent showered after the game) and catching the train the next day.
or
Thumbs down if you would spend the next three days walking back to London. (59 hour walk)
This isnt an option on bookings.com
Who thumbed up??!
it was me!
Wayne Ruin-ey and Rob Bin-Van Skunktosser
Well right now there are two thumbs up, so I’m guessing Rooney and Van Persie?
You could get more than two thumbs up van Judas. Two fists more like
I’d share the bed. You didn’t say I couldn’t bring a machete with me
on positive side, our team will get 4 days for preparation instead of ..3
Hold on – where are you going with your positivity??? – wring your fuckin hands and caterwall like teh rest of us.
What are you, a west ham fan?
Its disgusting!
No thought for travelling fans who actually have jobs to do in order to pay for these games.
There goes the saturday night jolly in Manchester.
The BBC (who are alright generally, as we all know – be honest!) have a decision to make about whether they get more viewers Sat 5.30pm or Mon 7.45pm.
More viewers = less increase in licence fee (a big plus for the general public).
Less viewers = increase in licence fee (happy gooners but less happy general public)
What would you do if you were Auntie Beeb?
Just mho
COYG
The influence on your licence fee that the greater number of viewers attained by moving one match in an entire year will have is about equivalent to a fart in a hurricane.
It’s the BUSINESS strategy that they will adhere to across the board making it a enormous fart on a still day.
Unless you think they should change their strategy just for us?
Actually you probably do…
Worse for me is that cup games are one of the few times to take kids away to get a feel for what it is like, because of the extra tickets available.
Short of taking a kid out of school for 2 days; this isn’t going to happen,
By the way on the License fee thing. The fee is fixed by the Government, who don’t care about TV viewing figures. They have frozen it for years anyway as they don’t really like the BBC either, and its their only lever to try and control it.
So you are saying it doesn’t matter to the BBC what their viewing figures are then??? One more attempt….if the BBC viewing figures are not kept high annually then they will go out of existence. We will therefor have adverts on every available channel, and lots more of them – because the audience wont be able to vote with their remotes and watch an advertless channel (because the BBC won’t exist) when the ad revenue channels increase the amount of ads.. If they show the game on a Saturday they will get less viewers. Their strategy to stay in existence… Read more »
In fairness – How could they fit 4 ties in just two days 8/
Monday night football is exactly like sex with your teddy bear, you know its wrong and even if you enjoy it at the time, you feel bad after and wont touch your teddybear until someone else has washed it, or you forget.
the FA would have you soil your teddies – the bastards.
Arsenal currently do travel to ALL away grounds in the UK. Just look for ‘Away Travel UK’ on the website. Other than pickup at the Emirates, they also pickup from Gillingham (where the coaches originate from) plus service stations at South Mimms, London Gateway & Newport Pagnell with free parking at all pickups (except Gillingham). Price is normally pretty decent too… The only downpoint for some people (which is probably why the majority don’t use it) is that, as it is official football travel, no alcohol is allowed on-board. And before anybody moans about ‘Jobsworth Arsenal denying your right to… Read more »
Yes, for the usual Premier League away allocations of around 2-3,000, and even then they probably only put on coaches for a few hundred supporters. We’ll have upwards of 9,000 Gooners traveling, at about 50 people a coach that’s 180 coaches (and a lot of luggage I’ll have my eye on), doubt the club will be willing to make that large a booking.
Are you sure we get extra tickets, thought Manure had a deal that they don’t give extra tickets for cup matches
The FA advice is 15% of the ground, restricted only on safety grounds (the OB, travel health and safety etc).
On pure numbers we should get around 11,000 tickets up there (based on 75,000 capacity at OT), if we are only getting 9,000 its probably about segregation and the other usual problems.
If United restricted things below what was needed, everyone else would do the same to them, or the FA would act (OK, no they wouldn’t, but you know what I mean).
I went to the last away FA Cup match at Old Toilet. We had about 7,500 there. Even though we lost, to their credit those 7,500 supporters were on their feet singing and chanting all day, from half an hour before the match to half an hour after when it was our turn to be let out of that grotty building. When I got back home a few days later and watched a replay on TV, all I could hear all match long was the Arsenal chants. Wonderful lot, our away supporters.
I know my problems don’t compare to away supporters trying to get home after the match, but this also sucks for international Gooners… instead of being able to meet with the full force of our supporters group on a Saturday, most of us now can’t even WATCH the match live as it will air at 1:45pm our time (while most of us are at work).
Assuming that all international fans live in the USA!
Or what if all international gooners live in NewYork and work unconventional hours. What if they are shift workers who get home at middday EST and are looking forward to getting the dinner on, a beer colded up and settling down to watch Arsenal take on the Manchester units before back to back episodes of matlock and then bed.
This is pretty ideal for them
6:45am on a Tuesday for us Australians…Sigh.
Try 2.45am on Tuesday morning for those of us in Asia…
Pfft…
Not too bad here on the West Coast – 11:45a on Monday means a long lunch for me. Luckily I have an understanding boss who appreciates my passion for Arsenal and is actually secretly pleased to let me take the long lunch because I almost always come back in a very good mood and do really excellent work well into the evening after we win. Kind of a shame as well, though, in that had we had a weekend date then Arsenal Vancouver probably would have packed a couple hundred into The Pint for the match. Oh, well, nothing we… Read more »
Hmm, forgot the time change is that weekend in North America. It’ll be a 12:45p kick-off. Bit late for a long lunch, but I’m sure I can make it work with my boss.
Absolutely ludicrous. Which media journalist will demand the FA justify this shameful decision?
As per usual the FA and TV rights take the piss out of loyal fans who will now have to lose a days wage on top of travelling to that shithole.
In one weekend the BBC deny the obvious dive from Shrek then pretend that making this game on a Monday night is in any way in keeping with the spirit of the FA Cup. You couldn’t make it up.
Well you could. But it would have to be in the BBC for it to be believed.
The BBC (who are alright generally, as we all know – be honest!) have a decision to make about whether they get more viewers Sat 5.30pm or Mon 7.45pm.
More viewers = less increase in licence fee (a big plus for the general public).
Less viewers = increase in licence fee (happy gooners but less happy general public)
What would you do if you were Auntie Beeb?
Just mho
COYG
we should have no problems beating Man Utd because they are crap but for some reason we have been able to beat them recently
Isn’t one of the ties a Midlands derby? Why the fuck couldn’t they choose that for the Monday night? Then nobody would have to travel too far.
Do as the BBC say, not as they do.
The BBC (who are alright generally, as we all know – be honest!) have a decision to make about whether they get more viewers Sat 5.30pm or Mon 7.45pm.
More viewers = less increase in licence fee (a big plus for the general public).
Less viewers = increase in licence fee (happy gooners but less happy general public)
What would you do if you were Auntie Beeb?
Just mho
COYG
Fuck off
It was us two!!
The only thing desperate about you grannies is your spelling.
Why are those grannies so “disparate”? 😉
Its about time we gave this lot a right bloody hiding COYG
Dammit, I play 5-a-side on Monday nights – do the BBC not know this!?
Soooooo happy its on a Monday! I was trying to work out how to watch it whilst at my sister in laws wedding all weekend.
I live about 45 minutes north of Manchester, although I don’t live there, I work in Preston and was praying they won so I could go the game. I haven’t been to an arsenal game since West Ham on boxing day 2013 due to where I live so if anyone can’t make it to this game as it’s on Monday, and would like to help me get to the game, I’d appreciate that.. Same goes for burnley game in April.. Thanks
where do you live?!?!????
Belive it or not, In a house! I kid, Blackpool… Don’t judge lol
It was the ‘I live about 45 minutes north of Manchester, although I don’t live there, …’ that confused.
Blackpool – life’s a beach!
Apologies, was meant to be a full stop after Manchester. Pressed wrong key! Makes better sense with the full stop there
Its a shit, but look at the bigger picture, it gives more Arsenal fans the chance to watch our team, not everyone can afford to go away / afford BT.
PS, wait until we play away on a Friday…….:-/
At least on a Friday you can overnight in the away city and not miss a day of work the next day.
Its a conspiracy that favours man-bbc-ref-u v Arsenal
A win and you probably don’t want to go back to work the next day.
They should also think about all the people living in Asia. I’m a lifelong fan from Finsbury Park but live in Hong Kong now, and there are thousands/millions of fans here and in China and all over Asia. 3.45am Tuesday morning kick off for a massive cup 1/4 final against United for us – fucking great.
It’s a sad state of affairs but I doubt much will change. Will the clubs in the PL all come together to contest fixture schedules… it is hard to say. Most clubs will be happy with playing in the PL and playing for the TV companies, which increases their turnover. Arsenal have moaned a little about it over the last few years, but have we done anything about it as a club? It seems all the clubs put out the right words to show the fans they care, yet when it comes down to it they are happy to cash… Read more »
Typical BBC + FA between them they couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery. If there’s a consolation here its not a lunch time kick off as we tend to turn up late
Come on Arsenal beat this shower of shit in their own back yard
The BBC should not worry about viewing figures!
We are Arsenal ffs!
Fk the BBC, we don’t care if they go out of existence because of taking decisions that will drop their viewing figures, and then they will disappear!
As long as Arsenal play their matches when it’s convenient for the traveling supporters we will be happy to only have the choice of watching channels with adverts!
See what I am doing here?