EPL club supporter groups join hands to protest against unfair seat-allocation for FA Cup

Supporters of Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham come together to point out the unfair policy implemented by the FA.

Supporter groups of have Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham have come together to protest against the irrational seat-allocation provided to away supporters for the FA Cup.

Apparently, the fans were disappointed with the authorities for the disparity in the way Arsenal’s ties with Tottenham Hotspur, Coventry City and Liverpool Football Club at the Emirates has been treated.

As spiritofshankly pointed out, in Arsenal’s FA Cup encounter against Tottenham Hotspur on 4th January 2014, only 5,186 tickets priced in the Category A band of £62.00 for adults were allocated to the travelling away fans.

However, 8686 tickets were allocated for the Coventry City fans, tickets comprising the upper and lower tier. Even the tickets prices were placed in the Category C band of £25.50 for adults, which is almost 3-times less than the one offered during the Arsenal-Spurs match.

According to the FA cup policy: “In all matches preceding the Semi-Finals, the Visiting Club shall have the right to claim up to 15% of all accommodation for which tickets are issued providing these tickets are in a fully segregated area.

Things aren’t improving as the travelling Liverpool fans who will be going to the Emirates on Sunday 16th February to support their team as they play against Arsenal will have to pat at least £35.50 for a seat in the Category B band. A total of 5,186 tickets will be allotted.

Both Tottenham and Liverpool FC have been refused the full 15% of seats, and a club official from Arsenal stated that safety was the reason they had to implement this policy.

“Arsenal’s Safety Advisory Group, which is made up of representatives from the club, local authority, police and transport, reduced the standard 9,000 away allocation under the competition rules due to fears over safety issues from supporters standing in the upper tiers of the stadium. Despite Liverpool’s request for the full allocation of tickets, this was turned down by Arsenal, following the advice of the Safety Advisory Group. A similar request made by Tottenham Hotspur for 9,000 visiting supporters’ tickets in the third-round of the FA Cup was also rejected. Any decision on ticket allocation is made by the Safety Advisory Group; however, Liverpool Football Club have been in continued dialogue with Arsenal and made every attempt to obtain the full allocation for fans.”

This is simply a move to make more money from the travelling fans as the reasons explained by the officials are rather absurd.

Spirit Of Shankly, the Liverpool supporters’ union stated on their website: “We have immediately re-written to both clubs to ask them to explain this decision, given the absurdity that a football club can designate an area as being available to away supporters yet then raise fears over potential safety issues.”

You can find the joint statement from Spirit of Shanky, Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust, Arsenal Supporters’ Trust and Arsenal’s Black Scarf movement here.