FA Cup away trips provide some of the greatest memories for travelling supporters.
The 3,000 Stevenage fans that travelled to Villa Park will never forget their dramatic late third round win against Aston Villa.
Those supporters will once again be waiting with bated breath over the allocation they are entitled to for their fourth round tie at Stoke. But can they work it out themselves or will they have to wait for official confirmation?
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The Athletic has explained all things FA Cup away ends.
How are away end allocations calculated in the FA Cup?
The calculation is quite simple in the FA Cup.
Prior to the semi-final and final, which are played at Wembley, visiting clubs are allowed up to 15 per cent of all tickets for the stadium they are playing at.
That is unless 15 per cent of the stadium exceeds 9,000. So clubs travelling to Old Trafford, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the London Stadium and the Emirates Stadium will have their allocations capped at 9,000, unless the home clubs are willing to offer more.
Despite the calculation seeming quite simple, there are still a few stipulations.
The visiting club must make a request for the amount of tickets they would like for their fans within four days of the draw. More often than not, teams will request the full 15 per cent but, in some scenarios, they will take fewer tickets than they are allowed.
In the instance that not all away tickets are sold by the visiting club, the remaining tickets must be returned to the home club on or (preferably) before the day of the match.
The tickets in the away end are not the only ones that are accessible to the visiting club. They are also entitled to a third of seats usually reserved and known as “home and visiting directors’ seats” up to a maximum of 24 seats.
The disabled facilities must also be separated. The visiting club have the right to claim 15 per cent of those seats as well.
Visiting clubs will not always be guaranteed 15 per cent of the seats throughout the stadium, though.
The Safety Advisory Group (SAG) must also agree to the away allocation that has been proposed. The SAG is made up of representatives of services including the police, fire, ambulance and building authority.
For fixtures that pose risks to health and safety, they can choose to decrease allocations for visiting clubs.
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How does this compare to league allocations?
Fans often get more excited for FA Cup away ties because they know that the allocation will be greater than the league equivalent.
In the Premier League, home clubs are required to offer visiting clubs a minimum of 3,000 tickets or 10 per cent of the seats in the stadium if the capacity does not exceed 30,000.
Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium often enters the debate at this stage due to its top-flight inferiority. As per the Premier League website, it has a capacity of 11,307 therefore the club must offer 1,130 tickets for their visitors.
The EFL – Championship, League One and League Two — works on a similar basis. Home clubs in the three divisions must make provision for 2,000 visiting supporters or, if the stadium holds fewer than 20,000 fans, 10 per cent of their stadium capacity.
Have there been issues with FA Cup allocations previously?
Yes.
Because of decisions made by the SAG, away allocations have had to be reduced from the 15 per cent expected by visiting clubs several times.
Those instances have usually occurred in all-Premier League ties.
Manchester United saw their allocation restricted to around 5,000 at the Emirates Stadium for their fourth round clash against Arsenal in 2019. In line with the 15 per cent ruling, they expected to be allowed 9,000 travelling fans.
In 2020, Chelsea only provided 5,466 away tickets for their fifth round meeting with Liverpool. That was around 800 fewer seats than they would have expected at Stamford Bridge.
The away end at the Emirates Stadium is often one that has been altered for FA Cup ties. On the way to Arsenal’s triumphant 2014 campaign, they limited the tickets available to both Liverpool and Everton fans in the fifth round and quarter-final respectively.
When the allocation is limited by the home club, it causes plenty of issues, not least with the fans of the visiting club.
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Allegations of gamesmanship are often thrown around. However, the decision is almost always out of the hands of the home club.
Once the SAG have come to the conclusion that the amount of away supporters must be limited, there is nothing the clubs can do.
How many tickets will each away team receive in the fourth round?
So, how many tickets can each of the clubs drawn away in this year’s fourth round expect?
These figures are rough estimates based on 15 per cent of the listed capacity of each stadium
Fourth round away allocations
Tottenham Hotspur at Preston North End — Deepdale: 3,511
Blackpool at Southampton — St. Mary’s: 4,857
Sheffield United at Wrexham — Racecourse Ground: 1,615
Burnley at Ipswich Town — Portman Road: 4,450
Reading at Manchester United — Old Trafford: 9,000
Grimsby Town at Luton Town/Wigan Athletic — Kenilworth Road/Select Car Leasing Stadium: 3,624
West Ham at Derby — Pride Park: 5,039
Stevenage at Stoke — Bet365 Stadium: 4,513
Forest Green at Blackburn — Ewood Park: 4,705
Leicester City at Walsall — Poundland Bescot Stadium: 1,695
Fleetwood Town at Sheffield Wednesday — Hillsborough: 5,959
Oxford United/Arsenal at Manchester City — Etihad Stadium: 8,010
Chesterfield/West Bromwich Albion at Bristol City/Swansea City — Ashton Gate/Swansea.com Stadium: 4050/3,163
Liverpool/Wolverhampton Wanderers at Brighton & Hove Albion — Amex Stadium: 4,612
Sunderland at Fulham — Craven Cottage: 3,855
Cardiff City/Leeds United at Boreham Wood/Accrington Stanley — Meadow Park/Wham Stadium: 675/817
(Top photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
