Calls for Liverpool vs Man City FA Cup semi-final to be move from Wembley Stadium amid warning of travel ‘chaos’ as Simon Jordan gives his verdict

Calls have been made for Liverpool and Man City’s FA Cup semi-final at Wembley Stadium to be moved to somewhere else in the country.

Railway engineering works planned for the weekend of April 16-17 mean there are no direct trains to the capital from the north-west, leaving fans of the Premier League’s top two sides with a major headache.

With between 50,000 and 60,000 supporters from the two clubs expected at Wembley, it presents a logistical nightmare.

Spirit of Shankly, a Liverpool supporters’ club, and 1894, an independent City fan club, said it was ‘appalling’ and ‘shambolic’.

“For the other semi-final between Chelsea and Crystal Palace, Wembley makes sense. For Liverpool and City it makes no sense,” a statement from both fans’ groups read. 

“More than 64,000 travelling supporters will be forced on to the roads, which will already be over-burdened with bank holiday traffic.

“City and Liverpool are less than 40 miles apart and there are plenty of grounds big enough far closer than Wembley to stage such a prestigious game.”

The FA said in a statement it is liaising with Liverpool and Man City regarding travel arrangements for supporters ahead of next month’s semi-final.

talkSPORT host Simon Jordan argued that consideration needs to be taken from all sides of the argument before a final decision is made.

The former Crystal Palace owner also said the FA should be transparent for their reasons for wanting to keep it at Wembley.

“It’s not appalling and shambolic,” the White and Jordan host said. “I realise that if you want to make a point, you don’t whisper it. You shout it and use strident language.

“There needs to be due consideration. You can’t expect train companies to sit there and look at the football schedules when people are going to play games and there may be a situation where two north-west sides are going to travel down to London.

“But that’s what we’ve got here. We need to understand why the FA needs to make a case for the game still taking place at Wembley. 

“We know the reasons why, because of the livery and heritage of Wembley stadium and the iconography of playing games there.

“All that needs to be factored in by the reality of how many people travel by train. If 64,000 people travel down and 10,000 people travel by train, then we are managing that difference rather than the 64,000.

“Let’s get an understanding of it. It’s not so long ago that football fans would have travelled from here to Timbuktu irrespective of the conditions we had to face when we were in lockdown.

“Now it’s an arduous thing because train lines are off. We have to get balance. 

“It would seem to me that there is a reasonable argument for relocating this game to the north of England, given the teams playing in it.

“I would like to know why, and the FA should be transparent on it, they would uphold the principles of playing at Wembley and the commercial reasons behind it and what they are going to do to provide a solution.

“If they are going to provide a solution that is viable, like Wigan, and all the travel companies can bus people in and the argument is that on a Bank Holiday weekend and it will be difficult.

“What would be the viable alternative, Old Trafford?

“If they are trying to protect the profile and prestige of the FA Cup, they are selling it around the world and part of that package they will have sold to advisers and broadcasters is Wembley Stadium.

“If they put that forward and they can advance a sustainable case and supported case of getting people in by different mechanisms.

“It might be [too much hassle], but I’m just throwing it out there. They should review it properly.”

The FA was also warned they risk ‘chaos’ if they do not provide alternate solutions, with the engineering works being moved the best option.

Chair of the Football Supporters’ Association, Malcolm Clarke, told talkSPORT: “This is going to be absolute chaos unless something happens. There’s been a north-west team in the semi-finals every year for the last decade.

“It’s very predictable this would happen, but when you’ve got two playing each other that’s going to be 80,000 people trying to get down to London when there’s no trains. 

“It is going to be absolute chaos. 

“There has to be some solution. If nothing alters I can see real chaos.”

On the prospect of the FA giving the go-ahead for a change of venue, he added: “I’d not be telling the truth if I thought that was likely. We would certainly hope they would look at that possibility.

“One of the problems with moving that game is nearly all the alternative stadia are smaller than Wembley. 

“Then you have the problem of less fans being to go.

“Our ideal solution would be for them to do the rail works on another weekend. Whether that is possible or not, I don’t know. 

“If rail is closed they should do all that is possible to provide coach travel to get down there.”

Potential venues that have been suggested include Villa Park, which has hosted FA Cup semi-finals in the past, while Darren Bent believes Cardiff’s 74,500 capacity Principality Stadium – formerly the Millennium Stadium – could be an option.

“They should have thought about it before and it’s probably not ideal to move it,” the former Premier League striker told talkSPORT Breakfast.

“I looked at the clubs potentially putting on coaches, but that means a lot of coaches coming from the same direction, so a lot of traffic. 

“The logical thing would be to move it to maybe the Principality Stadium, just because they have dealt with that before.

“We had the FA Cup there while the new Wembley was being built. It’s still not ideal.

“Why have they not checked it?”