Ticket Theft Means 900 Man City Fans Could Miss FA Cup Semi-Final Derby

Chris Wright

5th, April 2011

10 Comments

By Chris Wright

A gang of bare-faced tea leaves have stolen 900 FA Cup semi-final tickets after intercepting a Royal Mail van that was carrying the Manchester City-designated envelopes in the city on Friday.

Police are now worried that the tickets will be sold on the black market and that the City fans affected by the theft may end up being unable to get into the game against Man Utd at Wembley on April 16th.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said:

“Shortly before 7.50pm on Friday, April 1, police were called to Ashton New Road, Manchester, following reports two bags of special delivery mail had been stolen from a Royal Mail van.

“A number of tickets for the FA Cup semi-final were stolen and GMP is working with Royal Mail and MCFC. Inquiries are continuing.”

City themselves also released a statement via their official website:

“Manchester City are working closely with GMP and Royal Mail in connection with the theft of special delivery mail items from a Royal Mail van on Friday.

“A number of tickets for the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley Stadium were stolen. All supporters impacted by the theft will be contacted by the club in the coming days.”

“Supporters are strongly advised not to purchase tickets from unofficial sources. Only tickets purchased direct from the club will be valid for the game.”

Bloody annoying if you’ve ordered yourself a ticket or two I should coco, but at least City will have a decent excuse for their ‘impeccable support’ this time round…

Posted in FA Cup, Man City

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10 Comments

  1. unitedFixation says:

    Laughable. Typical City.

  2. Greg says:

    Couldn’t the tickets just be classed as invalid and new ones issued?

    It doesn’t seem to be too difficult to sort out, unless the FA are involved.

    Oh…

  3. Tinez says:

    Love that unrepresentative image of a thousands seats being unoccupied seats at, probably, an fa cup game

  4. Chris says:

    @Tinez: Just a little joke dude and, actually, it’s a photo from a Europa League knock-out round second-leg.

  5. dm says:

    City could just make the tickets two parted by asking fans to bring their seasoncards/citycards with them. they will contain purchase info as well as fan details. extra stewarding and police would be needed though, maybe royal mail should foot the bill. anyone caught with stolen tickets should be done for receiving stolen goods.

  6. CiTyBlUe says:

    My bet is on United fans, a United fan or two have stolen the tickets, It makes no sense a City fan doing it as the tickets were for City fans.

    Lets face fcts here ye, I have watched hundred of episodes of ‘Cops with Cams’, ‘Crimewatch UK’, ‘Police Interceptors’, ‘Nightwatch’ etc

    I have lost count of how many criminal United fans have been arrested wearing their united shirts, busted in bed with their united bedset and wallpaper, united sticker or red devil hanging in the car etc.

    The funniest one was a united fan arrested in his underpants, united branded pants at that, then there was the united supporting new age travellers nicked for stealing from a building site.

    Next time you watch a real life police show, keep an eye out for the united fans.

  7. swiss mafia says:

    at CityBlue,

    Funny how typical it is for a city fan to automatically blame united on the most random events.. Ever thought a bunch of non-football fans stole the tickets to make a substantial amount of money? No… of course not.. its united fans innit?!
    Typical City Fan Behavior M8!
    :p

  8. Martin Grayfield says:

    Funny how you blame thieves doing it on purpose or blame Man City i.e. typical city comment.
    The truth is that that the Police have arrested people and the FA have cooperated with City and re-issued the tickets so no one who purchased them will be out of a seat. So the allocation will be sold out in a fair manner to the fans who go.

    We could have done it on a ballot and sold the lot in 10 minutes but are doing it in a fair way hence them still being on sale.

  9. Parchester says:

    The scumbags who stole these tickets, and especially any thicko who buys one, obviously don’t know that admission to Wembley is via a barcode reader and that the FA have disabled the barcodes for all these tickets and issued replacements.

    So firstly genuine fans will get in (so your alarmist headline is nonsense), and secondly when anyone scans a dodgy ticket, it will flash up as stolen on a screen and they will find a steward and nice police officer waiting to ask them a few questions. I’m picturing a few angry and chaotic scenes at those turnstiles. It would probably be a good idea to get there early!

  10. swiss mafia says:

    martin ur comments make no sense.. ” Police arrested people” = they arrested thiefs but thiefs just didnt succeed..
    don’t understand ur comments and not going to try
    Good attempt to try and hide ur city fanship through nonsense though

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