Think about it. If it is not an Agent (Mr 15%) agitating for a move or offering a bung, then something like winning 15% of your games gets you relegated. Having more than 15% of your squad injured at anyone time causes inconsistent performances; drawing 15% of your home games seriously shags up a title challenge. And failing to give your opponents their 15% ticket allocation leads to an unseemly squabble rather akin to watching two six year olds fight in a school playground.

Arsenal have been drawn into an unedifying spat over ticket allocations for the Carling Cup Semi - Finals. The club are refusing to give Tottenham more than 5,000 tickets under advisement from the Football Licencing Authority. The competition rules state that each club must hand over 15% of the Grounds capacity to their opponents supporters so Tottenham are being short-changed by 4,000 tickets. Instead of maintaining the moral high ground, Tottenham jumped into the row both feet first and are fighting fire with fire. At the moment, Arsenal are only being given an initial allocation of 3,000 tickets for the match at White Hart Lane to maintain parity on percentage terms. This means that tickets for the first leg cannot be completely allocated until six days before the match and the reality is on sale probably five days beforehand.

And I have to say that on the face of it, Arsenal are in the wrong. They have known that there is a possibility of meeting Tottenham since the draw was made a few weeks ago and should have already resolved this issue with the FLA in order to find a solution to give Tottenham their full allocation.

This whole situation is totally wrong. The competition rules are known to the clubs, the Police and the FLA before it starts and surely one of the conditions of participation is that you adhere to the rules? All of us can probably remember when we have been to games in the past as away fans where you have struggled to get a ticket because of horrendously low allocations? Arsenal claim that segregating the fans safely is not possible in The Emirates. If that is the case, then surely they will be suing the Architects for around £100m on the basis that the end product is not fit for purpose. Certainly, heads must roll, the Project Manager being the prime candidate and the Managing Director would do the honourable thing and follow suit. If, of course, that is the real reason. Doubt has to be cast upon this for the club have given Bolton Wanderers their full allocation for the forthcoming FA Cup Fourth Round tie. And yes, you have guessed correctly, they have been given 9,000 tickets or 15% of the Stadium’s capacity.

The club claim to have a whole raft of paperwork from the FLA supporting their argument; sadly it just came across as the Directors looking for something to hide behind. And I am not sure why they have chosen to follow this course of action. I fully appreciate the difficulties in segregation and no-one is under the illusion that this is there for anything other than a damned good reason. A showcase game, local derby, deciding match in a Semi Final; it is little wonder that keeping the supporters apart is high on the list of priorities. After all, football has worked hard with other bodies to clean up its image and the last thing it wants is it to be tarnished. Again. Or for reasons other than corruption. However, every other ground and Police Force are capable of separating supporters and managing a game successfully. Are Arsenal and the Metropolitan Police that incompetent that they cannot do so? Or has the fundamental flaw in The Emirates design come to the surface? The answer to both is no. More truth can probably be found in the anger felt within the former Marble Halls about the damage caused after the Premiership game between the two; Arsenal may have made Tottenham cough up for the repair work but they want a quiet life. The Met, despite charging their handsome fees, want the same. The easiest solution is to limit the number of visiting fans. Or so they thought. Instead they have both made a right Royal cock-up of it all.

The Football League Board meet tomorrow to decide the outcome although it is difficult to see how they can fail to back Arsenal. If the FLA / Met Police want there to be only 5,000 Tottenham Fans at the game, then that is all there will be for both have the ability to postpone the match. I doubt that they would because it will lead to all sorts of political problems but to overrule them could create future issues for the FL. However, I hope they do “side” with Tottenham for one other aspect of this comes to mind; the atmosphere should be good although as it is The Emirates then nothing can be taken for granted. Surely though, in part, that is created by the inclusion of away support in the ground? Whilst they are not solely responsible for it, a bit of ribaldry and spirited banter between the two sets of fans makes for a better occasion?

Did I say Tottenham could claim the moral high ground? Ah, I did. I was wrong because they let Daniel Levy open his mouth which instead of allowing all of the oppobrium be heaped upon Arsenal, he decided to dictate to Arsenal what their ticket pricing policy should be, allowing an equal amount of flak or whatever you want to call it, to be thrown in his clubs direction. His motivation is clear; if Arsenal follow their usual pricing policy, Tottenham lose out financially. At the root cause of all problems, money is there poking its head above the surface, shouting, “Only Me!”. It is fairly apparent that Tottenham are out to maximise Revenues, as is their perogative as a listed Company and not a Charity. However, Levy has overstepped the mark when he believes that the visiting club are able to dictate to the home club what their ticket prices should be. Would he be criticising Wycombe for their pricing policy had they been the opponents? Did he criticise Cardiff for their pricing policy in the FA Cup Third Round? Both games where incidentally his coffers would be considerably emptier than a visit to The Emirates. No, he has seen that he could be getting over £1m from the away leg and now the club have realised that it could be diminished by up to £250k depending on how much the average ticket price drops to. Pure greed on Tottenham’s part with no thought whatsoever about the fans pockets. What he has conveniently forgotten to mention is that when they are given their full allocation, 9000 Tottenham fans benefit from the drop in prices.

However, his choice of words allows Arsenal a polite way to tell him where to take a running jump to on this issue. He asked that they follow their “usual pricing policy”. So let them do so; reduce the prices for the Carling Cup as they have done for a number of seasons. It is a credit to Arsenal that they want to continue pursuing this reduced pricing policy. There are a lot of clubs, I suspect, who would have taken the attitude that they will charge Business As Usual prices for the tickets simply because it is a semi-final. Arsenal have resisted this, rewarding those who have attended previously. Provided of course they can get hold of a ticket.

Anyway, that’s all for today unless some blockbusting news story hits the stands in which case I may pop back.

Below is a reminder of happier times and more cordial relations between the clubs; you know when Tottenham insisted on letting us win 2 - 1 at “The Lane”; David Rocastle’s winning goal the last time these two sides met in the League Cup Semi - Finals.

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