Throwing your money down Wembley Way

Later this month Wembley Stadium will host not only the FA Cup final but the European Champions League final as well. However, this is not the time for congratulations-all-round; this veneer of progress masks gravely concerning trends at the very top of the sport.

Forget the clumsy handling of the actual construction of the stadium; what is crucial is the amount of money – £757 million – that the FA invested in the new Wembley. Such a large sum is difficult to put into perspective, but what is clear is that the FA are prepared to ruthlessly recoup every penny of it that they can.

This attitude in itself is defensible; football is undeniably a business and this is just sound business strategy. However, it certainly weighs unequally against the disrespect being shown to football fans and the damage being done to the game. There is endless talk of managers and clubs not showing due respect to officials, as well as competitions such as the FA Cup, but this is nothing when lined up alongside the FA’s own actions.

To kick off with, there is no better way to kill ‘cup fever’ stone dead than hosting FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley. Fans’ delirium is tempered by a sizeable dose of unease at not having really earned a Wembley visit. What is more, if you think it is too expensive these days to follow your team regularly in the league, the cost of a Wembley visit will seem like some sort of sick joke. The most common price for an FA Cup semi-final ticket this year was £50 and prices only spiral come the final. Add to this the discontented rumblings from UEFA about three-figure ticket prices for the Champions League final and the FA really appears to be pushing its luck.

In one fell swoop, then, the FA ensures that fans can barely afford the shirts on their backs, whilst devaluing the oldest, most historic club football competition in the world. It doesn't stop there, though. If respect is so highly prized, how about showing some to the fans of this year’s play-off finalists in League One, League Two and the Conference Premier. They will be denied the traditional Wembley visit – instead being shunted down the priority queue to the Old Trafford and Eastlands stadia in Manchester, due to Wembley’s hosting of the Champions League final.

UEFA stipulates that no matches can be held at Wembley within two weeks prior to the Champions League final, which is where the FA has painted itself into a corner. So desperate for money and prestige is the FA that its own hallowed cup final will now be held on the same day as several Premier League matches, and neither UEFA nor the Premier League could care less. Cup final day is supposed to be sacred, but apparently tradition has a price.

The fact that a team’s ticket allocation is actually reduced from 34,000 to 25,000 between the semi-final and the final only adds further insult, as does the thoroughly distasteful Club Wembley initiative. At the recent Stoke City vs. Bolton Wanderers FA Cup semi-final, the Club Wembley seats were barely one-tenth full, whilst Stoke had sold-out their half of the ground. These corporate seats make up the middle-tier and run the full perimeter of the stadium, splitting the partisan fans into two sections. Basically, if you want anything resembling an atmosphere in with your ticket price you have to work hard to get it.

The whole recipe makes for a truly repulsive meal. On this evidence the FA has never been so weak nor so out of touch with the sport it governs. Football fans had better savour the little victories – the FA is poised to ruin any greater aspirations.