8,000 tickets will be issued for the Carabao Cup final on the 25th of April, but only half of them will be allocated to actual football fans of the two sides playing – the other half is being gifted to NHS staff and residents of Brent where Wembley Stadium is located, of course.
At the risk of sounding mean-spirited, surely against the background of the nation seeking to emerge from another lockdown, it would make more sense to keep the fans attending limited to people that could be traced vis their respective club’s membership systems?
I take a view that the likelihood of all the 4,000 tickets for NHS and locals residents being used by them is slight. Beyond those seeking to exploit the opportunity in order to make a few quid – the more pressing issue is that not everyone is going to be keen to watch a game featuring sides that they do not support. Maybe highlights on TV, but to have to schlep out to Wembley strikes me as a questionable gift.
The full details have yet to be released, but to my mind, the game could do with having genuine supporters in attendance, opposed to competition winners. 2,000 City fans and 2,000 Spurs fans is not the right answer…