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Mass movement of fans from north-west to Wembley for FA Cup semi-finals puts strain on police and train services
The Football Association is under fire from an unlikely alliance of British Transport police, Virgin Trains and Sir Alex Ferguson as 180,000 spectators descend on London for this weekend's FA Cup semi-finals.
Despite the fact that all four semi-finalists are based in the north-west – United face City on Saturday afternoon in the first Manchester derby played at Wembley; then on Sunday Bolton Wanderers play Stoke City – the FA has ignored pleas on safety and environmental grounds to allow the games to be played nearer home.
Ferguson, the United manager, condemned as "quite incredible" the fact that fans of all four clubs have to travel to London for the matches, while the police and Virgin have complained about the lateness of the kick-offs, particularly today's plum tie between United and City, which starts at 5.15pm.
While the match is scheduled to satisfy ITV's demand for a large live television audience, the timing has increased worries that there will be trouble between the two sets of supporters, because many will have been drinking all day. Derby matches in Manchester are almost always scheduled early in the day, at the insistence of Greater Manchester police, to minimise the risk of disorder.
The Metropolitan police has assessed Saturday's match as a "high grade" risk, warned fans without tickets not to travel, and said it will employ intelligence "spotters" looking for known or suspected football troublemakers.
Worries about potential trouble are greater because of the other supporters who will be in London – Bolton and Manchester United fans have a historic rivalry, there has been simmering trouble between Stoke and Manchester City supporters, and Liverpool fans will also be in the capital because their team plays at Arsenal tomorrow.
Besides the massive consumption of fuel – highlighted as "an important issue" by the unlikely eco-campaigner Ferguson – the weekend poses a huge logistical headache for the travel authorities and police, who also have the London marathon to deal with on Sunday.
Ferguson, who predicted "absolute chaos" on the roads, was joined in his criticism by Superintendent Peter Mason of the BTP, which has promised a significant police presence on all stations and the designated alcohol-free trains.
"It's not for me to decide where fixtures are played," said Mason, "but for British Transport police it would be far easier if the games were played locally."
"We are well aware of the challenges associated with policing high profile events," a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan police said, "and have put together an appropriate policing operation under a very experienced command team."
Supporters of both Manchester clubs have warned the risk of trouble will be greater after the match and on the long journey home, with all fans heading up the M1 and stopping at service stations together.
The FA, which owns Wembley, requires semi-finals to be played there principally to help pay off the £757m cost of building the new stadium, which opened in 2007. The latest FA accounts, for the year to 31 December 2009, show £342m of the Wembley costs had yet to be repaid, and a £309m bank loan was outstanding. The FA expects the stadium to require a further £64m subsidy until 2014, when it hopes Wembley will finally break even.
Previously semi-finals were always played at neutral club grounds reasonably equidistant for the competing clubs – City and United might have met at Birmingham's Villa Park or Anfield in Liverpool; Bolton and Stoke could have played at United's Old Trafford stadium – but since it opened in 2007, rebuilt Wembley has hosted them all.
The late finish of the matches, particularly today's, means there are few trains back to Manchester and the north afterwards. Five are running tonight in addition to the two regular scheduled trains. Tomorrow one extra train has been arranged, in addition to eight regular trains back to Manchester from Euston.
A Virgin Trains spokesman said: "We have done our best to pull rabbits out of hats but it has been extremely challenging. The Saturday late kick-off is the real issue. We have made our views known to the FA."