Jordan Henderson urges FA to 'think more about the fans' and change cup semi-final plans
- Planet Sport writer
- 26 March 2022
Liverpool captain unhappy with determination to play FA Cup semi-final in London.
Jordan Henderson has urged the FA to seriously reconsider playing the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Manchester City away from Wembley.
The FA have been committed to staging both semi-finals at the national stadium ever since the ground was redeveloped.
However, engineering work scheduled for that day mean there will be no trains available to supporters wanting to attend the game, leading to calls to relocate the match to a venue in the north of the country instead.
Those calls have been resisted, and on Friday the FA confirmed the game will take place at Wembley and they will lay on 100 buses to provide a travel option for up to 1000 Liverpool and Man City fans.
Liverpool captain Henderson, though, believes that is not good enough.
"I think this time, I've been thinking a bit more about the fans," he said.
"In many ways it's their day, and not being able to get down to London for different reasons - the cost of that…
"In my head it would make sense obviously to change it to a (different) neutral venue, especially with it being two teams from the north-west.
"That's just my opinion. There's obviously complications within that I'm sure which the FA have got to overcome but looking at the fans, which is probably the most important thing for me and something that we've learned over the past couple of years how important the fans are to football, that it is really disappointing to see that it's a struggle and it's got to be expensive for them to get there.
"To be honest - again, my opinion, and I love playing at Wembley - I would like to keep Wembley for finals anyway. I think (we should) play semi-finals at neutral grounds like it used to be.
"I think that was quite exciting, quite good and then obviously the final at Wembley to make it extra special."
