Source: Daily_Mail
HATCHET MAN: Skint FA continue to devalue their own flagship competition by staging Wembley semi-fin
Ridiculous budget over-runs, political fighting and shambolic management in the building of Wembley are still forcing football to pay the price and it has to stop.[LNB]This season's FA Cup semi-finals are again at the national stadium and Manchester United [LNB]and Everton [LNB]fans will have to trek across the country to watch their teams in London on Sunday 19 April because of the mountain of debt the came with its construction.[LNB] [LNB]It mattered then: Paul Gascoigne hammers home Spurs' first goal against Arsenal in 1991, the first FA Cup semi-final to be played at Wembley [LNB]The FA cannot afford for these money-spinning matches to go anywhere else, but staging them at Wembley devalues the final and further tarnishes a competition which has already been dulled by the prestige and prizes on offer elsewhere in a crowded fixture calendar.[LNB]The costs for the fans are also ignored as the game again imposes on their wallets in difficult times and two years after the stadium opened the governing body should have found another way.[LNB] More from Hatchet Man... HATCHET MAN: Am I bovvered? Penalty clown Vucinic might just as well have had an Arsenal shirt on...[LNB]12/03/09 HATCHET MAN: Fergie reveals the team he fears the most: Manchester United[LNB]12/03/09 HATCHET MAN: Big spenders City finally reveal their ultimate ambition: To win Europe's most pointless trophy [LNB]12/03/09 HATCHET MAN: The numbers don't add up for 365, 24/7 33-year-old Beckham - Captain America you ain't[LNB]12/03/09 HATCHET MAN: Someone needs to tell Hodgson that life ain't so tough at Fulham[LNB]11/03/09 HATCHET MAN: Abramovich should not have lost Mourinho and now he can't afford to let Hiddink go[LNB]11/03/09 HATCHET MAN: Levy breathes a sigh of relief as Tottenham old boy Ramos fails to show him up at Anfield[LNB]11/03/09 HATCHET MAN: No-goals Kitson has to be the worst signing of all time. Fact [LNB]10/03/09 VIEW FULL ARCHIVE[LNB] [LNB]
