WEM-BER-LEY!!

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Tell me mum, me mum!
I don’t want no tea, no tea!
We’re going to Wem-ber-ley!
¡Qué será sera!
With an hour gone, Ipswich Town defending well, still goalless, the visitors half an hour away from the final by a goal on aggregate, it was starting to get frustrating. Very frustrating. Despite playing much, much better than our listless, unfocussed display at Portman Road the equalising goal wouldn’t come.
All of a sudden Nicklas Bendtner is in, goaaaaaaallllllll! Three minutes later Laurent Koscielny is left unmarked and nets with a powerful header.  With a quarter of an hour left Cesc Fàbregas nails the coffin lid shut for Ipswich. Now we wait to see who we’ll face at Wembley on the last Sunday of February. Our second trip down Wembley Way since the ground re-opened in 2007. Most of us would rather forget that FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea. The pitch was as horrible. We allowed ourselves to be bullied by Chelsea. Not a game or a day to remember. We can but hope to be celebrating when the final whistle goes against either the Brummies or the Hammers. We’ll know which tonight.
Now the normal scramble is on for tickets. We’ll get 31,803 of them officially. Although Wembley’s capacity is 90,000, 14,000 of these seats in the mezzanine Club Wembley level and executive boxes have been sold as part of various packages to help fund the new ground’s extravagant £900 million cost. That still leaves over 13,000 not going directly to fans of either club. Much better than the FA Cup Final but still not what we want.
When I say “going directly” to the fans of the competing clubs, that’s exactly what I mean. Of the remaining 13,000 the lion’s share of those will end up with fans, except they’ll have had to have paid shady middle-men and touts for them. By definition every ticket that ends up with a spiv is one issued to somebody or organisation who is more interested in making money than going to the game. The definition of madness is to repeat the same action time and again, expecting a different result.
I know why fans resort to the black market. As things stand only platinum and gold members with at least three away credits on their account are guaranteed a ticket, along with members of the away ticket scheme. Those with two or less can register. There’ll be a ballot if more apply than there are tickets. Silver and red members have two chances of a ticket via the club – slim and none. That’s not the club’s fault. No system can extract a quart out of a pint pot. The system currently in use for allocating final tickets is about as fair as it could be. I suppose I’m bound to say that as I fit the criteria for an automatic ticket. I could make an argument that a proportion should be held for a ballot of silver and red members to at least give them a chance of a ticket, albeit a small one. Many silver and red members go to as many games as I do.
What is beyond doubt is that there will be thousands of fans at the game who have had to pay touts through the nose for their tickets. It happens every season at both domestic cup finals. The Football League is better than the FA in that it distributes more tickets directly via the two competing clubs but the black market still thrives on the 13,000 or so tickets distributed to other sources.
I strongly encourage any Arsenal supporter who has to resort to the black market to let both Arsenal Independent Supporters’ Association (AISA) and the Football Supporters’ Federation (FSF) have the block, row and seat number of any touted ticket they buy. A scanned image of the ticket would be ideal, with details of where they acquired it. Every year the FSF has a silly, “Yes they do. No they don’t” argument with the Football League and the FA. A simple Google search tells you how many tickets find their way into the hands of spivs. The more concrete evidence they can provide, the more pressure they can apply to get more tickets allocated to fans.
Talking of tickets, apparently there were a lot of problems with the electronic entry system at the Grove last night, with lots of tickets not permitting access to the ground. Electronic data systems are wonderful until they go nipples skyward. Those whose tickets didn’t work were directed to one window at the ticket office. Reports I’ve seen suggest that supporters so affected were still coming into the ground at half time.
I strongly encourage supporters so affected to complain in writing to the club by post or email, specifically mentioning that their complaint is made under the terms of the Arsenal Club Charter. I suggest that a full refund including the booking fee is requested. AISA is on the case and keen to hear from anybody who had this problem last night.
A full refund for anybody who couldn’t get into the ground before kick-off is a) the right thing to do and b) would be a great gesture befitting the Arsenal Way. It won’t cost that much compared to our share of the proceeds of the final. Those supporters who were inconvenienced last night had no part of the blame for the problems.
AISA will also be working to ensure that there is a much improved “Plan B” in case this problem re-occurs.
Meanwhile we no turn our attention to the visit of Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup on Sunday. Please, please Arsčne. We’ve got some momentum behind us now. Let’s keep it going. We need a strong team selection and a committed, focussed and professional performance against the Terriers on Sunday to see us into the fifth round draw at the first attempt.
Keep the faith!