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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Richard Garnett

FA have already caused Liverpool fans to fume as thousands missed famous Manchester United triumph

When it comes to the probability of success, there's simply never been a better time to be a Liverpool supporter in the past 30 years.

With the Carabao Cup already glistening in the Anfield trophy cabinet, Jurgen Klopp's remarkable squad find themselves on the brink of becoming true history-makers, with an assault on the Premier League and Champions League whetting the appetite of even the most reserved time-served Reds.

The improbable but not impossible prospect of Liverpool winning a quadruple of trophies is still a reality thanks to the narrow defeat of Nottingham Forest, which has set up a huge semi-final date with modern rivals Manchester City.

But while all the talk should be of who will prevail in Klopp versus Pep Guardiola - a battle for the ages and one that will be preceded by the exact same fixture in the Premier League a week earlier - instead the clubs and their supporters have been embroiled in a row with the FA about transport restrictions.

There area no trains running from Liverpool or Manchester to Milton Keynes - and therefore directly into London - on the Bank Holiday weekend that the Wembley semi-finals are due to take place.

READ MORE: FA's empty gesture is obvious but they already know truth about Liverpool vs Man City

READ MORE: Paul Pogba has just told Manchester United why they're so far behind Liverpool

Maybe you are of the opinion that Network Rail shouldn't perform major rail maintenance on a traditional busy period of family getaways, or that the FA should not have scheduled the semi-final fixtures to clash with transport disruption that has been planned since late 2019. Or perhaps you believe, like this writer, that the semi-finals should not be played at Wembley at all and should return to the traditional grounds that used to host neutral matches like Villa Park and Old Trafford.

Despite the backlash, this titanic fixture will go ahead at the national stadium on Saturday, April 16 and regardless of the transport hardship involved, one thing is for certain, it will be a complete sell out - in the Liverpool end at least.

The commitment of devoted supporters combined with a global appeal that has only continued to grow since the club got its act together and started to hunt down Manchester United, ensures that a below-capacity Liverpool match is about as likely as Alisson Becker scoring an injury-time header against West Bromwich Albion.

The FA knows this and will have in no way been motivated to move the fixture to another venue or another date. Instead, they will suck up the cost of 100 free coaches safe in the knowledge that the revenue of a capacity Wembley match day will more than compensate for it.

But as strange as it might seem today, such blind loyalty to a cause could not always be taken for granted, as was the case when Liverpool reached the FA Cup semi-final in 1996.

Under the managerial guide of Roy Evans, an exciting young Reds team were drawn against Aston Villa with the prize of a trip Wembley and the chance to win the FA Cup at stake. As you might sensibly expect for such a fixture, the match was arranged to be played at a neutral venue, namely Old Trafford.

What wasn't anticipated however, was a hefty ticket price increase for the occasion. Adult admission for the match in some areas of the Liverpool end was priced at £38 per ticket. Way above the cost of an ordinary match back in 1996.

It caused outrage amongst supporters and as fans mulled over the balance of taking a moral stance against the increase and supporting their team, the end result was the unusual sight of an under-capacity Liverpool end as thousands decided to stay away.

A crowd of 39,072 witnessed Robbie Fowler score two sublime goals before Jason McAteer added a late third to cap a 3-0 victory for the Reds and send them onto Wembley to face Manchester United. But by 1996, Old Trafford's capacity had been increased to 58,000, underlining just how many supporters had opted to stay away.

In light of the boycott, the FA acknowledged the public disapproval at the price hike and promised to return tickets to acceptable levels for the following season. Fan power in action.

Today, it seems highly unlikely that many supporters would take issue with the travel inconvenience seriously enough to actually vote with their feet and refuse to attend the match. They could reasonably argue what good it would do anyway, with thousands waiting in the wings to take their place, making life easy for the FA and games decision-makers once again.

But 1996 showed that collective action can deliver results so long as the will is there to force through change. Until then, supporters will simply have to continue putting up with the bad decisions that appear to benefit every stakeholder in the game apart from those for whom the sport was originally invented - the blindly loyal average football fan.

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