Still no ticket for the semi but the FA are lining the pockets of the touts! ... also ... Wenger must stay!

The next match on the Road to Wembley from Scotland is the semi final of the FA Cup at Wembley in three weeks time between Arsenal and Manchester City. For the first time on ‘The Road’ I am genuinely struggling to get a ticket for the match. Although it would seem that thousands of tickets have found their way in to the hands of dodgy operators.

The clubs have been given 32000 tickets each. This means that 64000 of the 90000 tickets will hopefully find their way into the hands of genuine supporters. I have no problem with this. Both clubs have more than 32000 season ticket holders so even some of their most committed and devoted fans will miss out on the big match. My big gripe is with what is happening to the other 26000 briefs. Surely, you would think, that someone on a mission such as mine would find it easy to get their hands on one of these tickets. The FA web site says that the other tickets are distributed to Club Wembley and commercial partners. Club Wembley is just too expensive to join for a one-off ticket – packages start at £995. The commercial partners are not unambiguously identified on the FA web site and I find it surprising that so many tickets seem to have headed their way. So, on the face of it, if Club Wembley and the ‘commercial partners’ have acquired for their members and clients the unallocated 26000 tickets then the match is a sell out … or is it?

I am now getting desperate so I am almost certainly going to buy a ticket from one of the dodgy ‘legalised touts’ sites. The prices start at approximately £140 (or about 5 times the face value of the ticket) and I am pasting in three random screen shots from 3 of these many sites. How did so many tickets for this match get into the hands of these rogues?

The thing is dear reader, that if I could be bothered I could have cut and pasted about a dozen such screen shots. I am pretty pissed off because of my own situation but I also feel for the thousands of genuine Arsenal and Man City fans who will not be able to get a ticket at a sensible price because of the FA’s very slack practice and Pontius Pilate approach to this issue. I would like the FA to answer a simple question: ‘How did so many tickets for the Arsenal v Man City FA Cup semi final end up in the hands of the likes of www.ticketbisevents.com   www.hotfootballtickets.com   www.footballticketpad.com and www.protimetours.com ? …. to name but 4 operators. If I don’t get an answer from the FA by the end of play on Monday then I will have to bite the bullet and, with gritted teeth, buy a ticket for the match from one of these sites … and then pray it is a genuine ticket!!

Meanwhile, in the world of football rather than the murky world of toutery, Arsenal and Man City will return to competitive action this weekend after the international break. Tomorrow, at the Emirates Stadium, they will play against each other in a Premier League fixture that will double as a dress rehearsal for their meeting in the semi final of the FA Cup in three weeks time. The globetrotting superstars from both teams have returned to London and Manchester respectively after representing their countries in far flung places around the globe. The match tomorrow will be one for the purists as both teams have a reputation for playing beautiful passing football. The match is on Sky at 4.00 pm and I will be glued to the set.

With almost all of the Arsenal first team squad away the media spotlight has fallen on the beleaguered manager Arsene Wenger over the last two weeks. It would appear that a sizeable minority (it may even be a small majority now) of Arsenal fans want Wenger to go and the media are jumping on the bandwagon.

Wenger must go? Really Arsenal fans? .. be careful what you wish for !

The Professor is batting away questions about his future and as the fortnight wore on he began to feel a bit more confident and latterly has played ‘cat and mouse’ with the sports broadcasters letting them know he has made up his mind about his future but that he won’t tell them! Good on you Prof … I am on your side. Now that the campaign to get him out has gathered momentum then it does seem inevitable that he will leave Arsenal after 20 glorious and successful years. It may happen before the end of the season or it may happen at the end of the season but it appears it will happen. I have a phrase that I use a lot when referring to football supporters – be careful what you wish for. I feel sure that if any Arsenal fan is reading this blog / book in five years time then Arsenal will be a mid table Premier League team in season 2021-22. It has been Wenger’s managerial expertise that has brought you the success and the regular slot in the Champions League that you now undervalue.

Will I get a reply from the FA to my question as to how so many tickets for one of their showcase games have ended up in the hands of touts? Will the Arsenal v Man City league game tomorrow live up to expectations and be the football fest that will have all football fans drooling? Will Arsene Wenger still be manager of Arsenal on Monday? Return here on Tuesday to the answers to these questions and much more … and keep reading …