Manchester City fans leave 10,000+ FA Cup semi-final seats empty – Unacceptable or understandable? | OneFootball

Manchester City fans and Nottingham Forest supporters converged on Wembley on Sunday.

The second 2025 FA Cup semi-final of the weekend, following Crystal Palace hammering Aston Villa 3-0 on Saturday.

Sunday’s match saw Man City win 2-0.

However, Forest fans saw their team hit the woodwork three times, as the opposition goal led a charmed life.

There was though another big talking point to come out of Sunday’s game.

That was the astonishing number of empty seats, left empty due to Manchester City fans not buying them up.

I have had a look back through the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley in recent years, the results and attendances (the FA Cup semi-finals in 2020 and 2021 I haven’t included, as Covid restrictions were in place):

2025 FA Cup semi-finals

82,301 Crystal Palace 3 Aston Villa 0

72,976 Manchester City 2 Nottingham Forest 0

2024 FA Cup semi-finals

83,672 Coventry 3 Manchester United 3 AET (Man U won on penalties)

80,902 Manchester City 1 Chelsea 0

2023 FA Cup semi-finals

81,445 Brighton 0 Manchester United 0 AET (Man U won on penalties)

69,603 Manchester City 3 Sheffield United 0

2022 FA Cup semi-finals

76,238 Chelsea 2 Crystal Palace 0

72,976 Manchester City 2 Liverpool 3

2019 FA Cup semi-finals

80,092 Watford 3 Wolves 2

71,521 Manchester City 1 Brighton 0

2018 FA Cup semi-finals

84,667 Manchester United 2 Spurs 1

73,416 Chelsea 2 Southampton 0

My conclusions:

So was it unacceptable or understandable that so many Manchester City fans failed to buy up their FA Cup semi-final allocation on Sunday?

I have seen comments from both sides of the argument.

The fact that Manchester City fans have seen their team reach Wembley so many times, making it understandable why 10,000+ of their tickets were left unsold.

On the other hand, THIS is a chance to go to Wembley and watch your team in a massive match, an FA Cup semi-final. Why aren’t the seats full regardless?

As you can see by the attendances over the years, this isn’t a new thing.

Manchester City fans have time after time failed to sell out for FA Cup semi-finals.

The other stand out thing is that it is the same/similar story with Chelsea fans, they also have regularly failed to sell their FA Cup semi-final allocations.

A combination of success and both clubs not having fanbases big enough to support that success (following a club on social media is not the equivalent of how many fans will buy tickets to support their team!), leads to these repeated shortfalls and so many empty seats, whenever Manchester City or Chelsea get to FA Cup semi-finals.

Is this the solution?

What about this.

It seems crazy to me that having failed to sell so many tickets of their previous FA Cup semi-final allocations, that Manchester City fans were given a full allocation once again.

Checking on the official Man City media, it states that they had a 36,230 allocation for Sunday.

What was the point, the Manchester City fans were never going to come close to buying them all up. Recent history makes that crystal clear.

With so many Nottingham Forest fans desperate to be there at Wembley and so many Manchester City fans, for whatever reasons, not intending to go. Why didn’t the authorities hold back say 10,000 of the Man City allocation, sections closest to the Forest allocation. Then if there wasn’t the demand from Manchester City fans, 10,000 more Forest fans could have got their chance to be inside Wembley.

It doesn’t benefit anybody seeing so many empty seats at such a prestigious match at Wembley. All those thousands of Forest fans watching on TV, thinking why couldn’t we have had those seats that Man City couldn’t sell?

Hopefully an outbreak of common sense will break out and if either Man City or Chelsea get to the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley in 2026 (or later seasons), surely it is time to cut the allocation by 10,000 for either clubs’ fanbases if they reach this stage again.