Manchester United news: Club faces fan backlash after announcing travel plans for FA Cup semi-final at Wembley
Over 30,000 Manchester United fans will attend the FA Cup semi-final, but planned train engineering means thousands face being stranded in London for the night
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Your support makes all the difference.Manchester United are facing a potential fan backlash after plans to provide transport from their FA Cup semi-final at Wembley were criticised by their own supporters.
The gesture was made by the club after Network Rail announced track closures on the weekend of the FA Cup semi-finals, with both United and Everton fans due to travel south to the capital for the match.
But despite being praised for taking the measure to try and assist fans in bringing them home, some supporter have been unable to seal a place on the coaches being offered because they were fully booked as soon as an email was sent to successful ballot entries.
Speaking to the Independent.ie, one unnamed fan said: “This offer covers [approximately] 2,000 fans out of 31,000. All places had gone by the time I received an email telling me I had been successful in the ticket ballot.
“So their statement that they are offering free travel to fans is disingenuous to say the least. I have contacted the ticket office at United and they are not interested. I was told it doesn't matter as they were free anyway.
“I don't see why United should enjoy the good publicity for this story when to all intents and purposes they have lied.”
United announced plans for 57 coaches to travel to and from Wembley that will be free of charge to fans, although with United’s allocation at Wembley exceeding the 30,000 mark, thousands face being stranded in the capital unable to return to Manchester until the following morning.
To make matters worse, the majority of hotels and bed & breakfasts have been booked due to Sunday’s London Marathon, meaning that prices are at a premium and availability is very restricted.
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