The Football Association expects around 2,500 Liverpool supporters will be impacted by the lack of trains to London for the weekend of their FA Cup semi-final with Manchester City.
But the governing body are almost certain to go ahead with the match at Wembley, despite repeated calls to reschedule to a venue in the north next month. Both sets of supporters face a logistical nightmare getting to London for the semi-final clash due to there being no running trains from the North West to the capital over the Easter weekend.
Avanti West Coast confirmed it will not be running any trains into London Euston from April 15 to 18 because of engineering work that is scheduled to take place across a number of locations. The travel company said further work is also slated on the West Coast Main Line, which will cause further alterations and disruption.
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Services from Liverpool Lime Street will start and terminate at Rugby across the long weekend, while trains from Manchester Piccadilly will begin and end at Milton Keynes Central and run via Stoke-on-Trent.
On Monday, Liverpool supporters' union, Spirit of Shankly, put out a joint statement with their City counterparts, the 1894 group, urging a rethink over where the game will be held. Those calls were subsequently backed by Mayors for both cities as Andy Burnham and Steve Rotherham released a statement on Tuesday evening accusing the FA of having “failed to give due thought and consideration to the interests of supporters” in their joint-letter, addressed to FA chair Debbie Hewitt.
However, despite the growing calls, the FA are still pressing ahead with the game as scheduled in a move they believe will impact around 5,000 supporters across both the Manchester and Merseyside regions. The ECHO understands that the FA are expecting 2,500 supporters from each team to travel by rail from the North West and a change of venue or date is not thought to be feasible.
They believe the majority of fans of both clubs will be making their way to Wembley from outside of the affected areas.
"We are working with National Highways to ensure that the road networks are running as efficiently as possible for the semi-finals weekend," says one FA source. "The revenue generated by the semi-finals being at Wembley Stadium is incredibly important for English football as The FA is a not-for-profit organisation and ensures that it is reinvested back into the game."
Manchester United's home game with Norwich City on April 16 means a swap to Old Trafford is out of the question while there is concern within the FA that a change of date could hand one of the two teams an unfair advantage given their participation in the Champions League.
As it stands, both the Reds and City will play the second legs of their respective ties with Benfica and Atletico Madrid on April 13, with Pep Guardiola's side in the Spanish capital for their game on the same night Jurgen Klopp's men host the Portuguese outfit at Anfield.
Wembley's status as the stadium with the largest capacity in the country at 90,000 has been used as justification for keeping the Cup tie at the national stadium, with FA sources indicating that it gives more fans of both sides the opportunity to see their team live.
Earlier this week, the ECHO learned that the FA were made aware of the planned rail works for that weekend as far back as November 2019 before they were written to in September to consider a move because of the potential for rail disruption.
An FA Spokesperson said: "The FA will be liaising closely with both Liverpool FC and Manchester City FC on all match arrangements, including supporters travel for the upcoming Emirates FA Cup Semi Final fixture at Wembley Stadium, with further details to be announced in due course.
"We are also continuing to work with both Network Rail and National Express to find a solution so that supporters of both teams are able to travel to and from the fixture with as minimal disruption as possible."
