As an Everton fan, having seen many Evertonians being forced to pay hundreds above face value to touts to see their team in the final and stories of more being conned by fake tickets, seeing such a tag line flash up in Wembley before the final was laughable, considering the FA had supplied every single one of these touts with the tickets in the first place. A pitiful 25000 was given to each club out of 90000, leaving a 40000 supply of tickets potentially available to touts.
This is not a problem that only affects the top 4 fans, it will affect many fans in the future. In the last decade 12 teams outside the top four and 4 outside the top flight appeared in the Carling and FA Cup finals, a total of 20 different teams have appeared in the two major finals, and any club from 60 clubs in England has a chance to get to a major final in the next decade. This is an issue which affects most fans.
We understand the financial problems with the FA, and we understand the need for Club Wembley, but what is unexplainable is the 23000 tickets given out to people who have little interest in the game itself and inevitably via an extortionate price tag, the tickets go back into the hands of the fans of the clubs playing. If most of these tickets will be taken up by fans anyway via touts, then surely the FA should cut out this extortionate middleman and supply the tickets directly.
The Respect Campaign is calling for a rethink from the FA about a fairer allocation, a look into who deserves to be counted as the football family, a greater protection of fans from touts, and a general show of more respect to the life blood of English football, the fans.
So if you want to support the Respect Campaign, please sign the online petition part of our campaign.
Thank You For Your Support.
http://www.petitiononline.com/facup71/petition.html
We have a facebook group.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=87769364695
The campaign will go beyond the online petition and we aim to get the backing of the clubs who have complained about allocations and have contacted several newspapers. Any ideas are welcome.