Chelsea ticket sales

Here's the thing. I work in London and alongside some Chelsea fans. Season ticket holders. Not the ones you see on TV drinking red wine in the stands at home matches or those we all remember from our days of visiting Stamford Bridge in the 1980s, but proper ones who were there when they weren't very good.

Anyway, they got their cup final tickets today. Like Everton, there was a point-based system but no ballot. So each one was able to log onto the club website this morning, select a price bracket and 10 minutes later they have an email not only confirming the sale, but also what section in the West Stand they will sit in. So all of them can sit back, relax and plan their day.

The worst element of this revelation came when I described Everton's allocation approach to be greeted with nods all round and the line "yeah, ours used to be like that 10 years ago".

Application made

Made my application for FA Cup Final tickets via the online club site. Now the wait begins.

I have to say that considering the club is using an automated form, and presumably some type of CRM app behind it, I'm surprised that the confirmation email for the application didn't contain a tracking number of some sort.

More cup tickets stuff

Another public comment by Robert Elstone on the shortfall in cup final tickets for Everton (and Chelsea). He gets onto talking about touts. The FA has launched a new campaign to Out The Touts. Which I'll be doing if necessary. But only once I've bought a ticket off Mr Tout.

Looks like Chelsea are going to pull off a decent result in Barcelona tonight. That will be Part One of the Grand Plan for Everton to win the FA Cup Final. Chelsea must get to the Champions League Final, must win it and Mr Abramovich will take the entire squad out on a 5-day bender in both Rome and Moscow celebrating. The end result will be that Chels show up at Wembley completely mullered and take not a blind bit of interest in the game. We win the cup. Everyone's happy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/fa_cup/8015583.stm

Phil

Found this photo on the web. Love it.

Cup Final allocation of tickets

Everton has announced the system they will use for allocating FA Cup Final tickets to the club's fans. Unsurprisingly, there are not enough tickets to go around. In fact, there are not enough tickets to ensure that every season ticket holder, as the club itself identifies 'some of the most loyal fans', will get to see the side in the final at Wembley on May 30th.

So now the fight for a ticket begins in earnest. Well, actually from midday on Wednesday through to May 6th - the closing date for applications. The official site outlines the application process but if you haven't attended three matches in addition to owning a season ticket, you can forget Wembley. Having reviewed the process again just now, I still have a feeling the club will find itself short even allowing for this reward system. We've played so many extra games this term, I simply can't believe that there won't be significant demand over and above the club's assessment.

A quick peak at the various message boards and comments by Everton's support online reveals every possible emotive fear and doubt about the system Everton has opted for with dispensing it's allocation of tickets. The nagging feeling that the much maligned Box Office will manage to make a pig's ear of the whole thing is a recurring theme. Sadly, there are no alternatives.

In Box Office We Trust.

http://www.evertonfc.com/news/archive/cup-final-ticket-information.html


Away from Cup Final ticket dilemma, I'm sure I'm not the only one hoping to see Newcastle get beat this evening placing their Premier League future in doubt. No group of fans deserve trips to Peterborough, Doncaster and Blackpool more.

City

Terrible day. Terrible match, terrible performance and the whole thing overshadowed by the appalling cruciate injury sustained by Phil Jagielka in the second half which not only rules him out from the FA Cup Final, but in all probability, for the next few months.

Jagielka's injury came out of the blue as he chased a ball back towards the half-way line. There was nobody else in sight but it was obvious from Jagielka's reaction as he lay on the pitch that the damage was significant. The news in detail emerging today is both bad news for the club but even more bad news for Phil Jagielka on a personal level as will miss out of (possibly) his biggest day in football later in May. Jags has been Everton's most consistent performer this season, if not the best. His application and constant ability to learn quickly when thrown in against the Premiership's best forwards is a credit to his attitude. I've seen him caught out twice all season and I can't say that I can recall a time when he's been found wanting against the same opponent twice. He got the run-around from Torres in the home derby but there was not repeat in the three matches a few months ago. Same with his experience against Ashley Young. In addition he's made the England squad on a few occasions.

Let's hope Jags makes a swift and successful recovery.

Centre-half is actually an area at the club we have a good deal of strength in. Lescott, Jagielka and Yobo are all good players. Yobo and Lescott were a tight unit until Jags came through last season. They'll now be responsible for containing Drogba and Anelka in May.

Fair play to Moyes for (still) refusing to moan about our injury blight. We've now lost three first-11 players for the season in the shape of Jags, Arteta and Yakubu. Throw in Anichebe, Valente, who are also gone for the season and the lengthy time lost for Vaughan and you have a small squad stripped bare. It's a credit to the rest that we've managed not only to compete but do so very successfully.

I hope that City was a blip. Very possibly a case of After The Lord Mayor's Show, or a game too far. It would be a shame if the season dribbled away now. We've got a series of tough matches left leading to Wembley on May 30th.

Blue Is The Colour

Forgot about this. We're wearing blue for the Final. Result. I couldn't bear the idea of us walking out onto the pitch in either that pathetic white number or, worst still, the acid-house top. Question is, will it be a final outing for the existing Umbro top, or the introduction of the rumoured retro le Coq '84 incarnation?

And by the way, is this the best photo ever?

Final Ticket Allocation

So, a bit earlier than expected, Everton's allocation of tickets for the Cup Final has been announced. The club will get 25,000 or so tickets. The next challenge according to Robert Elstone is to work out a process to divide the tickets fairly amongst Everton's fan base.

I'm not sure what that means exactly. Everton probably has about 20,000 season ticket holders who should, in my opinion, get first shout. But I'm biased because I am a season ticket holder. The club is in a difficult position here. They could follow the same process as with the Semi-Final and utilise a points-based system rewarding season ticket holders who have attended additional fixtures (and therefore further lined the pockets of the club). Alternatively, they could do something radical and split the allocation between season ticket holders and other fans who have only attended a certain number of games but shouldn't feel alienated because they do not have a season ticket, in the form of a ballot. Either way, a lot of fans will be disappointed.

The second option would definitely succeed in reaching a wider audience and it's right that non-season ticket holding fans should get an opportunity to attend the game. But I'll be honest here, if I lose out because of a ballot I WILL GO MAD.

The Cup Final ticket allocation is an annual hand-wringing, teeth-gnashing performance akin to the first day of the Big Brother Show. Apart from the freak 2008 Cup Final where both sides could cope, there are simply never enough seats to go round. The preposterous award of over 30,000 cup final tickets to FA officials, distinguished guests, liggers and other pointless souls prevents a sensible award to the respective fan base of the teams involved. But it will never change, so there is little point moaning about it. So I won't. Call in favours, make new friends, lean on people. Remember that horrible bloke you hated at school but now works in the ticket office at Goodison? He's your new best friend.

http://www.evertonfc.com/news/archive/final-allocation-announced.html

Everton into the Final

Panini

It's a generation thing, but for me Panini sticker albums from 1977 to about 1982 were a highlight of my day to day existence. Probably because Everton repeatedly lifted my spirits only to dash them at the final hurdle, I found alternative solace in collecting football stickers.

Having lost them all, like many others, I rediscovered complete or semi-complete albums courtesy of eBay in the last 3 years. There is, obviously, a certain shame attached to a grown man parting with several pounds online and waiting for a brown envelope to pop through that letterbox a few days later, but it's something I'm prepared to deal with.

Despite the intervening years, the Everton double-page is still the first I turn to, but for true value, you've got to dig deep and look hard at some of the images staring back at you. Take Paul Wilson of Celtic for example. Could you look like that and be a footballer in the 2000s?

Stanley

Sporting Limburg

I didn't go to the match today. Several reasons including my inherent dislike of Sunday afternoon kick-offs. Anyway, caught it via Mr Internet, and, as usual in these circumstances, looked like a great game and not one to miss. Following on from the awful trip to Portsmouth, it was a good result with a series of good performance. Leon Osman stood out particularly on the 17 inch monitor and I though Fellaini looked decent. I'm starting to develop a theory about Jo being only able to play at home. Yet again he put in a shift and, critically, scored the goals. At Portsmouth and at Newcastle, he'd have been better in the stands.

Before tuning into the Everton match I caught 20 minutes of a Dutch top flight game between Ajax and a team called Roda JC Kerkrade. Of no real interest aside from the romanticism still attached to the Ajax name, and that Roda until recently were managed by our very own Raymond Atteveld. The bit I caught involved a protest as the Roda fans hurled bits of yellow seating onto the pitch. They weren't protesting at yet another defeat, but at the actual death of their football team. Roda are about to be merged with another local regional side Fortuna Sittard, a side with a connection to Everton as they were one of the teams beaten on Everton's run to the 1985 European Cup Winner's Cup triumph.

The deal to merge the sides is not uncommon in Dutch football. Roda themselves were created out of a sequence of mergers in the 1950s. The economics of a small country and a desire to be competitive makes it an attractive and sensible option for custodians. However, it still stands that the fans, having grown up with their local team are going to witness it disappear in the next 12 months and be replaced by a regional 'super team' who will be called Sporting Limburg - Limburg being the Dutch province.

Merging football teams, indeed any sports team, is an emotive subject in the UK. Robert Maxwell tried it in the 80s proposing to merge Reading, Oxford and QPR to create the infamous Thames Valley Royals or Rangers. It failed. In rugby league in the early 90s as the Superleague era was born, the new sponsors and financial paymaster wanted a smaller group of regional super teams and proposed merging the likes of Warrington with Widnes, Castleford with Wakefield. It failed due to overwhelming objections from fans, the connection of the fan to the club is often lost on the financial people. I would imagine there is a tiny seed of this reaction that will ultimately prevent Everton ground-sharing with Liverpool. Club identity will always be more important than success. Just ask the fans of AFC Wimbledon.

Read on in the Guardian

Observer article

Good piece this morning in the Observer highlighting the financial risks being taken by football clubs in England and across Europe. The stat that about £7 in every £10 of turnover for Premiership and Championship clubs goes straight to the players says it all. There's plenty of other alarming bits and pieces.

Everton get a mention.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/apr/05/football-finance