A taxing time for Liverpool and Man City fans… but football chiefs doing sweet FA about it

Is someone had asked Chas ‘n’ Dave to write a song to mark Tottenham’s appearance in the 1981 FA Cup semi-final, I’m guessing they’d have politely said ‘**** off’.

I’ve never met a single fan who thinks the last four of the oldest national football competition in the world should be played at Wembley Stadium.

I’m sure they exist, but rumour has it they also think Wings made better records than the Beatles, George Lazenby was the ultimate James Bond and pineapple on a pizza is totally acceptable.

This season, Manchester City and Liverpool supporters, probably 60,000 of them, will have to travel from the North West on Easter weekend, with engineering works meaning no direct trains running from either city to or from London.

The Football Association knew about this more than two years ago, was again reminded of it, and took a conscious decision not to act. Some say, well, how did the FA know which teams would make it to the semi-finals?

Let me clear that one up. Only once in the last ten years has there not been a Manchester or Liverpool club in the last four of the FA Cup, and that was in 2014, when Wigan, Hull City and Sheffield United were all involved.

In fact, only once since the semi-finals moved to the new Wembley, in 2008, has there not been at least one team from these two cities or further north in the final four.

You hardly needed to summon Mystic Meg, Uri Geller and Clinton Baptiste to predict this one. To paraphrase the latter: ‘I’m getting a word… money.’

And that’s not a wild accusation. The FA told us so, at the time, in no uncertain terms.

A spokesperson said it was: ‘A financial necessity in order to pay for the new stadium. And the upside is that not only will more fans be able to watch the games, but they will be