Update: Fresh Man City ticket announcement should send shivers down the spine of club officials News

Manchester City are yet to sell out their allocation for Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final at Wembley against Nottingham Forest.

Manchester City make their 21st cup journey to Wembley since 2016 this weekend. So maybe it is no surprise that the allocation at the national stadium is still not sold out.

City announced on Thursday that any Cityzen member who has purchased any ticket since 2022/23 can buy up to four seats for Sunday’s clash vs Nottingham Forest – who sold out their end instantly. That is as close to opening tickets up to general sale as possible so raises the question why fans are turning their backs on such a pivotal game.

Forest secured promotion back to the Premier League in 2022 via a Wembley play-off final, their only appearance there since it reopened in 2007. They have received two extra sets of tickets after quickly selling all their 36,000 allocation and extra trains have been put on from Nottingham to accommodate the added numbers heading from the East Midlands to Kings Cross. It is undoubtedly a huge game for them in a season that keeps on giving.

Yet City are relaxing almost all criteria having failed to sell out after season ticket holders and members in the cup schemes got priority. The only exemption to the new window is that fans who have only purchased tickets for fixtures against Forest are excluded, presumably to prevent red shirts in the blue end. City’s season doesn’t have the excitement or feel good factor that Forest’s does and Wembley is not a novelty fans need to pay for.

There will almost certainly, then, be empty seats in the City end, following thousands of empty seats on Tuesday against Aston Villa. Even for two of City’s biggest games of the season, fans are putting their wallets first and who can blame them.

City have been spoilt with plenty of visits to Wembley and will hope for another one next month. If they reach their third consecutive FA Cup final it will be their tenth visit in four years, while they have reached the FA Cup semi-finals seven years in a row. This is not a new experience.

Tickets started at £30 for adults for this year’s semi-final, for a seat high up, rising to £90 for the lower tier behind the goal. Club Wembley prices go as high as £150. Then there is trains, petrol or accommodation to think about, plus the inconvenient Sunday afternoon kick-off time. A family probably won’t take their children given the cost (£80 for under-18s in the lower tier) and late return to Manchester on a school night.

City fans highlighted Tuesday’s pricing against Villa, which started at £71 for adults, and protested inside and outside the Etihad. Their message read: ‘Please don’t take my City away’ to send a message that they feel the club are pricing out the next generation.

Protests against Leicester and Villa have focussed on the lack of new season tickets as well as other ticketing issues, and next week’s clash with Wolves will see fans again stay in the concourse for the start of the game to highlight a lack of new season tickets being made available. Images of empty seats at the Etihad for different reasons have sparked debate, refreshingly without much of the usual sniping and jibing from rivals.

That will never go away but there is a growing realisation that fans must unite over growing ticket prices. As money becomes tighter for everyone, City fans shouldn’t be judged for not being able to afford every single game. Not to mention public transport issues that come with another visit to London.

It also serves to underpin the protests which all come back to the same issue regardless of specifics on season ticket policy – the increasing expense of following football. It is not just City, and it is not just City fans. £71 on Tuesday and £90 for Sunday is unreasonable in anybody’s book and this is another point to hammer that home.

The relaxed criteria should, at least, allow more fans who wouldn’t usually get to Wembley see City at the home of football. The fact it has got that far should equally be a wake-up call to executives across the FA and Premier League. And when hundreds of regulars stayed away from the 2023 Community Shield in protest at the kick-off time, the atmosphere suffered as a result.

Fans need help and they are starting to do their talking with their feet. Clubs assume they can fill seats with tourists and new fans – so what happens when even that doesn’t work?

Even without a call to action for protest, the City end on Sunday could be an even more worrying sight for officials, just like Tuesday should have been. Without regulars and their replacements, this weekend could be a worrying look into the future.

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