djamfisher

Can't believe he, an Englishmen, who apparently is a big football fan, said that. I'm guessing he's a football fan in the same way Cameron is.

Fox, digging himself a nice big hole there then. Also, so the club wants to develop players, run better as a business .Fair enough, but all I can think of when Fox and Hollis say this, is, are they having a dig at Lerner for the piss poor job he has done until now. Obviously not necessarily meaning to. But I think you can argue they are.

Every set of fans, in our situation would do the same. Don't try and make us out to be some sort of idiots. The Baggies was a championship/League 1 side for years, when it finally got promoted a few years before the great escape. Thier expectations and experience were completely different. Trust me, if they were now in our position their fans would moan like hell. You may be happy to swallow whatever rubbish is given to you. Doesn't mean others have to.

He isnt that. Don't you think, just another layer senior management interested in the commercial side of the club (this is my concern and my opinion). My worry is, going forward, like now the balance is not right, in terms of getting the football strcture right. It clearly isn't now, with two unqualified mugs running the recruitment. I hope I'm wrong and Mr Hollis is strong enough not to believe the nonsense Fox feeds him.

Aonther Tom Fox, just what we need. Still no real football people involved in the running of the club. The balance between being run as a business and a football club is all wrong, and this seems tobe going in the wrong direction again. Time wil ltell of course, but i'm not confident.

A 2 game history is as good as general sale really though isn't. Apart from those who haven't had games allocated to them ever, you'd like to think there'd be enough demand from people that have seen us twice in about the last 5 years. I think there is; its just hard, this late in the day, for people to organise other things, such as funds, travel, childcare, time off work to collect tickets etc.

My mate got there at 6:30, was about 40th in line. Supposedly a lad at the front came from Croydon last night; got there at 2. Mate reckons there was about 250 there at 8:20.

Totally agree, goodness knows why they did it that way. Surely they have the data to know that many of the first few windows would only sell a couple of hundred tickets if that. Also making people wait until a couple of days before the game to get their tickets is harsh, as it's harder to arrange things, such as travel, child care, days off work to buy tickets, days off work to attend the game etc. So many reasons why the criteria thing was wrong. Also when the tickets first went on sale there were only one or two other games available to buy tickets for so the ticket office was quiet. I can only assume it was done that way to stagger the demand and to allow the ticket staff to breathe every now and again. I imagine they have about what, 30-50 members of staff working the ticket lines during this period. Good luck trying to handle 20,000 phone calls all at once. The point was it was silly breaking it up the way they did; no one mentioned that they should've let the 18,000 ST holders all given the chance at the same time. They surely have the data to enable them to break it up evenly over the period, as to ensure people aren't scrambling a couple of days before the game for travel etc. Common sense really.

Why? This is totally down to the way the tickets have been sold. There are so many people that want / wanted tickets. If for instance (and I know this would never have worked), they put them all on general sale (the same way they do for a concert or a festival), and it was first come first served, we'd have sold them all straight away, and then some. Yeah many of them to Liverpool fans, or fans of other clubs. Did you mean varied booking history, rather than general sale. Cos general sale would've cause mayhem. Prioritising ST holdetrs is fair; but giving them so long was ridiculous.

Totally agree, goodness knows why they did it that way. Surely they have the data to know that many of the first few windows would only sell a couple of hundred tickets if that. Also making people wait until a couple of days before the game to get their tickets is harsh, as it's harder to arrange things, such as travel, child care, days off work to buy tickets, days off work to attend the game etc. So many reasons why the criteria thing was wrong. Also when the tickets first went on sale there were only one or two other games available to buy tickets for so the ticket office was quiet.

How many peopel in total were down there at the end?

It's a reference number with 2 games from this season today. Woman at the ticket office yesterday seemed to think there is a chance it could sell out today; but i'm not sure. Got tickets in a £43 section, row 9. That suggests the row behind this are all available. Got them at 2:30 yesterday. She said they had just opened up the particular block; i'm guessing it's the last block now.

If you have a booking history, then you wont need them to go to general sale. You need it to go to varied booking history. if there's any left this is likely to happen Thursday or Friday.

Liverpool were charging £7 for postage; fair play to the lcub for not ripping the fans off like that.

Would I be able to phone up and go and collect after work, anyone know? Rather than wait til then. Not that it really matters, as i'm sure there will be some left. Just that i'm doing a favour for my nagging sister.

It wont go to general sale; due to obvious reasons; like the club not wanting Liverpool fans in our end. Our reference numbers run into hundreds of thousands indicating that more than enough peopel are registered with the club to sell this out. By now the tickets should be on sale to people with a varied history. I know plenty of people in this situation who are wanting to go. The fact that tickets are available shows the club has messed up the criteria. I agree with their prioritisation in general; however, they gave far too long for ST holders to claim theirs. My mate runs a coach for Villa away games and he is refusing to run any more (currently doing 5) as it is too late. Due to it being so late in the day could prevent us from selling out. I'm guessin train prices will now be sky high, and many people will be worried about getting coaches down to the ground. Which will mean people wil lhave to drive; and Wembley isn't great for driving. TFF i think you make some valid points; but i do felel if the club had made the tickets available to varied booking history by now this may have sold out. This late in the daythough it may take general sale to sell out.

Got mine yesterday, around 400 people down there. Definitely wont go to general sale. Villa have asked for more tickets. Its going to 4 games today, if there's any left, will just to go to 3, 2 and then 1. Common sense. Then to varied booking history.

I wouldn't worry pal, Anybody that wants to go will get a ticket. Why do you think that? can't get mine until tomorrow, and have four mates wanting to go, who have been to a few games this season, but don't mean any of the criteria set out at the moment.

With the last semi-final, and this one (IMO), i think we struggled because season ticket holders were given far too long to get theres. The tickets didn't go on sale to less regular fans until about a week before the game, sort of similar to now. A number of ST holders were never going to go Wembley twice in a month, due to cost. I believe this hampers fans ability to get organsiaed, as they're not sure if they'll get a ticket so can't really plan travel, and when they finally can train prices are sky high, and coaches are fully booked, or they've decided on other things. I think we'll just about sell out this time, but got a feeling it will be in the week leading up to the game. Considering we've only got 18,000 ST holders I am surprised they've been given 2 weeks to get their tickets.

Finally, pretty what was expected dueto theother games goingon in the London area on the saturday. Pardon my ignorance. What's with the 'connected by EE'. Has Wembley been sponsored?

Can't believe the FA don't have more a backbone, and just played the Liverpool game yesterday. It's a one off, not like the FA arrange games to clash with CL every week. If the FA had anything about it, it would've been able to put together a good enough argument to UEFA for it to allow the game to have been played. Like I say it's a one off, involves a championship club; it wouldn't have an impact on CL. Surely they would've allowed the REading Bradford game to have been on a Tuesday, had the FA shown a little bit of courage. In regards to the Bradford game not being delayed. Games are delayed 10/15 mins all the time. due to congestion,, and other things; how the FA didn't get that game delayed a few minutes is shocking. Fed up of people saying clubs degrade the FA cup, and lack respect to fans, but ignore the fact that the FA are the biggest culprits.

The BBC says Saturday 3 for both games at the moment. 9 days since the draw, and the muppets at the FA still haven't got a date yet.

Kingman, I think you're right. I bet only a couple of hundred wil lbe sold tomorrow, for instance. Considering how quiet the ticket office is this week, with only Tottenham and Swansea tickets available, i would've thought they'd try and shift as many as possible this week.

A week since the draw's been made, and still the dates of the games haven't been confirmed. It's cliche, but the FA are good at sweet FA.

I would guess she used your client reference number when buying the second ticket. If so I would anticipate that you would both be able to get a ticket. If not you may be able to go down to Villa Park with youur sister exxplain the situation, and they will see she has bought two tickets each time, and they may be willing to create an account for you and attach the history retrospectively. In regards to not selling out last time. We sold out the final with ease; but the semi final for the FA cup was just a month after, and the club didn't release the tickets to non-regular fans (for the want of a better word) until just a few days before the game, which resulted in many of people being able to plan properly for it. I know a number of people for the last semi who didn't think they could get one so didn't try or makes plans to, and when they found they could, they had made other plans. Also, the cost of going to Wembley twice in a month was not possible for many fans.