just shows you how out of touch with the fans the club is at present.

The phone system at ITFC is a joke. They don't have a queuing system, they just tell you all lines are engaged and cut you off. Why is this club so pathetic?

Sounds fair enough to me. Villa could have been more flexible IMO. They arent going to sell out so why not give us the 2900, leave the next block free and then if we sell out, which we are let us have the next block on sale or return. Everyone wins then surely ?

blueysnosebag - ive never had a problem with it, whenever i call it says you are in a holding area for a couple of minutes then tells you how many people are ahead of you in the queue.

i know alot of people who were hoping to get tickets today and may have been disapointed. its a shame that you cant just take another 500 but then i guess you would end up with an area with home and away fans mixed.

Yes we have an average attendace of 650 away but this is an away game to a premier league team, what about past FA cup games at Chelsea etc when we took 5 or 6 thousand. Such a joke!

Clubs aren't allowed to use the "sale or return" trick in the FA Cup. You're allowed 15% of thr ground. So someone at one of the two clubs is trying to pull a fast one.

Once again the Club shows its lack of faith in the fans and seems completely out of touch. I know a lot of people who are going to miss out because of this which is ridiculous

Campag_Velocet

Think it's always the case in the FA Cup, certainly was with Chelsea and with Watford a few years ago, see the link in the story.

Staggering incompetence.

This club is lucky to have the following it has, with the poor fare that has been served up in recent years. Yet, the appointment of MM has injected more enthusiasm into our fan base, which, yet again, is set to be disappointed. The investment of - what - £40k? into a higher allocation, is insignificant compared to the goodwill that would be engendered, and compared to the amount spent in players' wages.

When FFP comes in, maximising the fan base will be *extremely* important - so what a good time to deny the fans their day out at Aston Villa.

Dear oh dear.....

Anyway, it's easy enough to buy tickets through Aston Villa, which is what all of our fans are doing apparently - at half the price ITFC is charging. The host club is serving our fans better than our own club.

If Villa had any sense, they would make the rest of the potential 6,000 allocation available on the gate. They could easily allocate an entire section - I reckon they'd sell an additional 500-1,000 tickets easily on the day. Must be worth it for them, surely.

Rules herewith for your interpretation:


21. DISTRIBUTION OF TICKETS
(a) All Rounds Preceding the Semi-Finals
In all matches preceding the Semi-Finals, the Visiting Club shall have the right to claim up
to 15% of all accommodation for which tickets are issued providing these tickets are in a
fully segregated area, and subject to the following regulations:
(i) The request for tickets shall be made within two days of the draw.
(ii) The tickets allotted to the Visiting Club, if numbered and reserved, must be of equal
value to those retained by the Home Club.
(iii) In cases of replays, the Club playing away in the replay must make a request for
tickets prior to the original match in order to ensure that the replay tickets are in the
possession of the club playing away in the replay at the latest immediately on
conclusion of the original match.
(iv) The Visiting Club shall be responsible for the payment of all tickets asked for and
allotted, unless otherwise agreed between the Clubs in writing with a copy sent to The
Association. All questions in dispute shall immediately be referred to The Association.
(v) The Visiting Club should settle with the Home Club for sales of tickets on or before
the day of the match.
(vi) Any tickets not sold by the Visiting Club should be returned to the Home Club with
their statement of tickets sales.
(vii) In the Competition Proper, a Visiting Club shall be entitled to one third of the seats
usually reserved and known as “Home and Visiting Directors' Seats” up to a
maximum of 24 seats.
(viii) Where disabled facilities are provided, a Visiting Club shall have the right to claim up
to 15% of this accommodation.
(ix) Where it is deemed desirable, the Professional Game Board shall have the right to
vary the allocation of tickets to the Visiting Club, or require a match to be made all
ticket.

lord mac, what a ridiculous statement. villa are selling the tickets at half the price itfc are? itfc can only sell the tickets at the price printed on the tickets, which are sent from aston villa. dont ,make stupid comments that you cant corroborate. it also seems typical that the only people complaining on here are those "fans" who have hardly been to any away games & maybe not even home games i dare say. im a gold card member & seaon ticket holder & im gonna miss out because i have been witing to see if there space in the car id be travelling in, and do think we should be able to claim more tickets, but that is down to aston villa not itfc. but im not gonna complain, its one of those things. get over it people. or maybe you really think the club should take the risk of spending money with no guarantee of selling a lot more tickets. while i agree they probably would do, taking those kinds of risks is no way to run a business. its a shame not everyone who wants to go can do of course. and anyway, i wouldnt be surprised if more tickets are made available

£15 for a Gold Card, pays for itself every year. Simples

Fine, I'll just sit in the Villa end for cheaper.

I presume the club didn't use the alternative priority system of reserving tickets for frequent away travellers with this game (or at least, if they did, I'd be rather surprised if my 4 away games this season didn't qualify for it). Anyone know why? Have they stopped doing it now?

Got my Villa ticket yesterday but shame for those who have been left with a last minute bunfight that, while unlikely to be avoided outright, could've been made a little fairer with a bigger allocation. Best of luck to those buying - if they haven't already gone by now...

But surely those at the club understand the tradition of the FA Cup? its one of the most prestigious cup competitions in football and every club is eager to see who they play no matter where they are in the League, the Cup is a one of, we know we probably wont win the cup so we want to make the most of the 1 possibly 2 games we will most likely get. If you go and draw a Premier League side and your in a lower division than them then you become excited by the draw regardless of how good/bad you're doing in the League. We've had a decent following going to places like Barnsley this season when we were playing badly likewise trips to Leicester and Palace even though the fans knew we had been struggling and were hammered by Blackpool earlier on in the season, so surely a tie at Villa, which is much more drawing, when we're having an upturn in our fortunes is going to attract even more fans.

You could also argue that the stadiums in the League hold half the amount of a Premier League side such as Aston Villa.

@blues1 - ignore Lord Mac, whether ITFC buy too many or not enough, he'd cry incompitence. Lord Mac knows the exact figure that will attend so will need to accept his superior foresight. If the price it too high in his opinion he'd moan, too low he'd moan the club arent generating enough money. Some of our "fans" sadly just like to moan.

Anyway, I'm assuming as they see demand surge that they'll purchase further tickets until the demand drops, or is that too easy an assumption to make? If so, the drama queens will have to find something else to moan about.

Cock up all round by ITFC both in terms of allocation and distribution. The "average away support" is meaningless in a situation like this and there has been no attempt to allocate to the regular away supporters who the Club depend on for continued support. Those who come out of the woodwork for one away game per season have been given preference over the regular away supporters which lacks commonsense and loyalty. I have my ticket for Villa as a gold card holder but I still have strong feelings on the lack of loyalty shown to regular away supporters. Perhaps ITFC would like to attempt to offer an explanation.

cheshire blue. not sure your comment about those coming out for 1 away game of the season getting preference is entirely accurate. but could have some semblence of truth in it. but then why shouldnt a season ticket holder or a gold card holder get preference. they have after all committed to the club before the season even started. the only complaint i would have is if the "part time" supporters got a ticket ahead of those who regularly attend games, which clearly in this case, isnt gonna happen.

At last - something to have a damn good moan about!

Me and my brother have been to 9 away games this season and we have seen some very big defeats then the part time travellers come out of the wood work and we are left with no ticket think I try and get some villa and sit in there end won't me many of there supporters there

Club once again put fans at the bottom of the priority list, surprise

Can everybody please stop moaning for a change.

They procured almost 5 times our average away tickets for this one game, who knows how many would want to go and watch an underachieving lower championship side against a lower underachieving premiership side. It's Villa not bloody Man Utd.

I for one am concerned that there are some who cant get tickets obviously but i dont understand some of the comments on here about the club showing a lack of loyalty to us fans etc etc. It seems that they reward those who show loyalty by getting season tickets and the many other memberships that you can sign up to. If we wasted 40k on a player or wages wed be up in arms about how the club is being run.

I cant go to home games regularly now i live away from Suffolk but i go to quite a few away games, and occasionally the odd home game when im back in the area for a few days. However i buy a gold card every year to make sure i can get the tickets for games that i want because in my opinion people who fork out 500 or so quid for a season ticket deserve to have access to tickets earlier than i do. Yes we can get into the debate that ive been to 6 away games this year, two of which we got thumped in, so that shows my loyalty but the simple fact is that season ticket holders pay up in bulk before weve even kicked a ball. That is proper loyalty in my eyes.

Its unfortunate that in modern football your loyalty is boiled down to how much you spend on watching the team every season but such is the nature of our beloved game.

Thats just my opinion obviously. I just wanted to highlight that the rules for ticket purchasing do give me a massive disadvantage but the club do offer ways of improving your chances, if you are willing to stump up that additional cost of mebership.