The 5.15 timing for this year’s FA Cup final has provoked controversy. Wigan Athletic fans are particularly aggrieved. By the time the game has finished it will be too late for them to get to Euston and catch a train home. The FA’s response has been to recommend using a coach, provided by one of their sponsors, National Express. But this could mean a return home well after midnight, not fun if you have small children with you.
The 5.15 timing for this year’s FA Cup final has provoked controversy. Wigan Athletic fans are particularly aggrieved. By the time the game has finished it will be too late for them to get to Euston and catch a train home. The FA’s response has been to recommend using a coach, provided by one of their sponsors, National Express. But this could mean a return home well after midnight, not fun if you have small children with you.
It is argued that once again ‘followers’ on television had been put before genuine fans. However is it a case of who he pays the piper calling the tune? The recent Times study of the financial accounts of the 20 Premier League clubs shows that out of a total income of £2.24bn lase season, only 24 per cent (£531m) came from ticket sales. £1.1bn came from central broadcast pools and £599m from commercial income, although almost three-quarters of that went to six clubs.
Of the two finalists, only 10 per cent of Manchester City’s income is from ticket sales. At Wigan, reflecting relatively low crowds for the Premiership, it is just 7 per cent. It is 30 per cent at Manchester United and as high as 40 per cent at Arsenal, but these percentages will drop once new broadcast and commercial deals cut in.
When I was growing up, the FA Cup was the football event of the year. Winning it was seen as more glamorous than winning the league, even though that was a much better test of merit. But the Cup has declined in relative significance, certainly eclipsed by the Champions League.
Top sides often chance below strength sides in the earlier rounds and that can produce asymmetric contests in the later stages, as we saw in one semi-final this year and arguably also applies to the final. But for Wigan it is a special day as it is their first appearance in the final.