By Boris Mellor
June 23 2014

Arsenal fans on the day of the cup final who were unlucky enough to have booked into entrance P, having paid a mere 65 pounds or 85 pounds for a ticket, had extreme difficulty accessing their seats. Many did not get in until after the first two goals were scored.

I only got in just in time to see the first goal, I have never been late for such an important game before, actually I don’t remember being late for any game, and I have been supporting Arsenal for over 50 years.

Complaints were made to Wembley stadium who gave this genius of a reply:

Turnstile P was very busy in the run up to kick off at the FA cup Final and this was due to a very late walk-up by the fans. There were no malfunctions or issues relating to turnstile P, it was just a case of the majority of fans turning up close to the kick-off and so a build up occurred. We were monitoring it from Event Control and reduced the time delay on the stiles to allow a quicker entry but there is only so much we could do to quicken the process.

We do try to encourage fans to turn up as early as possible and try to avoid the 30 minutes before kick off.

All very plausible don’t you think? Except I know people who turned up at 4pm and only got in with a few minutes to spare. I turned up at 4.35 and there was no chance of getting in at all, fans were panicking and trying other entrances which were empty but were not allowed entrance. I managed to talk my way into an emergency entrance, no doubt the staff concerned have been reprimanded for their kindness.

Now this raises another issue – if it was lateness that caused the problem then why was it only block P that suffered the problem? Is there something genetic about block P ticket holders that makes them later than J,K or L ticket holders?

Sorry Wembley the excuse is balderdash and typical of the way that the big business that is football treats fans these days.

Which reminds me did you get an email offering you club Wembley membership so that for a mere few hundred you could buy a final ticket? I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t start running quarter finals there next to raise more bucks. Community Shield? I don't think I will bother.