Manchester United are asking for tickets for Sunday’s FA Cup clash with Arsenal to be given to neutrals, as they continue to push the FA for a resolution to their dispute.
Manchester United remain in contact with the FA over their allocation for Sunday’s FA Cup game against Arsenal, despite the proximity of the fixture at this stage.
United wanted 9,000 tickets for the game, 15% of Arsenal’s 60,000-seater stadium, but the Gunners only provided around 8,000 seats – citing safety concerns.
The away side took the dispute to the FA and offered to handpick recipients of the disputed 1,000 seats, but were turned down.
According to Mike Keegan in Wednesday’s print edition of the Daily Mail on January 8th, United have since suggested that the tickets could go to neutrals selected by the FA, such as emergency service workers or those involved with FA grassroots projects.
If that fails, the seats will seemingly remain empty, and United expect Arsenal to cover the cost of the lost revenue.
It’s worth mentioning that Manchester United themselves failed to give Arsenal their full allocation when the two sides last met in the FA Cup at Old Trafford in 2015.
United handed Arsenal 8,600 tickets, which is 11.5% of their capacity and 400 tickets short of the 9,000 the FA require them to provide. At the time, they cited the configuration of the ground, arguing that they couldn’t provide the full 9,000.
Funnily enough, they seem unsympathetic to the idea that the configuration of Arsenal’s ground could make it difficult to provide them with their full allocation in return.