Arsenal chief slams final ticket allocation

Arsenal chief slams final ticket allocation

Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis on Monday questioned the Football Association's decision to allocate Hull the same amount of tickets as the Gunners for next month's FA Cup final at Wembley.

Arsenal's Greek - South African Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis looks on before the English Premier League football match between Queens Park Rangers and Arsenal at Loftus Road in London on May 4, 2013

The Gunners took around 49,000 supporters to the national stadium for Saturday's semi-final against Wigan after the Championship side returned some of their tickets.

In contrast, Hull failed to sell out their allocation for Sunday's semi-final win over Sheffield United even though it was the club's first FA Cup semi-final for 84 years.

Gazidis had hoped Arsenal's larger fanbase would be taken into consideration when the FA made ticket arrangements for the final on May 17 and he was disappointed to see each team given 25,000 seats.

The distribution of the rest of the tickets for the final will see some 20,000 given to volunteers through the 'football family', which includes counties, leagues, local clubs and charities, the 92 Premier League and Football League clubs, another 134 full member clubs and all those clubs who reached the third-round proper.

With the FA Cup final being part of the Club Wembley membership package, some 17,000 tickets will therefore also be allotted elsewhere.

Gazidis feels the system is unfair on both finalists and said on the Arsenal website: "We are disappointed many of our supporters and also those of Hull City will be unable to get tickets to the cup final.

"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."

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT