Gary Neville has responded to a Manchester City fan by offering to pay for him and his son to attend the FA Cup final - provided they don't sign songs about rivals Manchester United.
The player turned pundit, who won the FA Cup on three occasions during his career, was challenged by a fan on Twitter after he mocked the City attendance at Wembley on Saturday. Only 69,603 fans attended the last four clash - 20,000 short of capacity - which City comfortably won 3-0.
Pockets of empty seats could be seen throughout the TV coverage whilst certain sections weren't even opened. The cost of travel down from the north west, coupled with the ticket itself, has priced out a host of fans. Neville appeared to anger the City supporters when he made light of their attendance figures on social media.
One then challenged him by saying: Hi @GNev2 @markgoldbridge, I’ve just seen the prices for the final at Wembley. I can’t afford to go with my son so I am just wondering if you fancy paying for us both?, I would hate to disappoint you both having empty seats there."
Neville, to the surprise of many, accepted his offer, on one condition. He replied: "Ok mate I will pay for you and your son. I will follow you now and if you can get tickets I will sort. Please DM me. Just one thing though. If you can’t handle jokes make sure you don’t sing about United in the future. That a deal?"
The fan is yet to reply publicly to the former United man, but may have continued the conversation privately after Neville's request. City take on United at Wembley, which could potentially have treble ramifications, on June 3.
Holding the semi-finals as well as the final at Wembley continues to be a divisive topic, which was again on the agenda given the empty seats on Saturday. Many feel it takes away from the magic of Wembley, whilst questions are asked over whether two northern-based teams should travel to London for a neutral game.
Neville's former team-mate Paul Scholes was advocating a move of the semi-finals back to Aston Villa's ground, which held them by Wembley re-opened in 2007. He posted on social media: "If there was ever an advert to get semi-finals back at Villa Park."
Jamie Carragher echoed that sentiment as he said: "There are enough stadiums of 60k+ to cater for fans. Two teams from the North shouldn’t have to spend on travel to get to Wembley! It’s about paying off Wembley & nothing else."
