Man City vs Liverpool FC travel fiasco should be watershed moment for FA in how they treat fans

If the FA knew about planned rail disruption two years ago, it might not be expecting too much of them to change the location of the upcoming FA Cup semi-final from Wembley. Fans of Manchester City and Liverpool are understandably frustrated at the news that the lack of available trains to London for their semi-final has been known to the FA for two years, with no apparent movement on staging the last-four clash at the national stadium.

Logistically, it may be too late to move it to Old Trafford, or Villa Park, or even somewhere like St James' Park. However, if the FA want to show they do have the smallest bit of consideration for regular, loyal, match-going fans then they could do worse than use this fiasco to make change for the future.

City are no strangers to Wembley, with 18 trips to the 'Etihad South' in the last 11 seasons, not including when Tottenham played there in the Premier League. That could become 21 in 12 seasons if they reach the FA Cup final and Community Shield, while they have reached the FA Cup last four in five of the last six years.

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The FA could have guessed that at least one of City, Liverpool or Manchester United would have got to the semi-finals, with Everton and other North West teams also more than capable of getting that far, as Crystal Palace have done this season.

In fact, since the semi-finals were permanently held at Wembley in 2008, 23 of the 54 semi-finalists have been Northern. When Midlands teams are added, 50 per cent of teams reaching the last four have travelled from Birmingham or more northerly. Yet on the 12 occasions where a London-based team has faced a Midlands or Northern side in the