FA stance on FA Cup semi-final at Wembley as Liverpool and Man City travel chaos looms

The Football Association expects around 2,500 Liverpool supporters to be impacted by the lack of trains to London for the weekend of their FA Cup semi-final with Manchester City.

But the governing body are almost certain to go ahead with the match at Wembley, despite repeated calls to reschedule to a venue in the north next month. Both sets of supporters face a logistical nightmare getting to London for the semi-final clash due to there being no running trains from the North West to the capital over the Easter weekend.

Avanti West Coast confirmed it will not be running any trains into London Euston from April 15 to 18 because of engineering work that is scheduled to take place across a number of locations. The travel company said further work is also slated on the West Coast Main Line, which will cause further alterations and disruption.

Services from Liverpool Lime Street will start and terminate at Rugby across the long weekend, while trains from Manchester Piccadilly will begin and end at Milton Keynes Central and run via Stoke-on-Trent.

On Monday, Liverpool supporters' union, Spirit of Shankly, put out a joint statement with their City counterparts, the 1894 group, urging a rethink over where the game will be held. Those calls were subsequently backed by Mayors for both cities as Andy Burnham and Steve Rotherham released a statement on Tuesday evening accusing the FA of having “failed to give due thought and consideration to the interests of supporters” in their joint-letter, addressed to FA chair Debbie Hewitt.

However, despite the growing calls, the FA are still pressing ahead with the game as scheduled in a move they believe will impact around 5,000 supporters across both the Manchester and Merseyside