FA Cup Semi-Final Venues Have Been Announced By The Football Association
After the replays decided the last two semi finalists would be Chelsea and Manchester United. The Football Association have decided that the FA Cup semi-finals this year will be played at Old Trafford and Villa Park.
The first of the two games will be the fixture between Manchester United and Watford on Saturday 14th April with a kick-off time of 17:30 It will be played at Villa Park and the game will be shown live on the BBC.
The second game will be played at Old Trafford between Chelsea and Blackburn Rovers on Sunday 15th April with a kick-off time of 16:00 with the game being broadcast live on Sky Sports.
The dates of the cup semi-finals clash with the fixture between Manchester United and Chelsea at Stamford Bridge as they were due to play that possible Premiership decider on the 15th of April. They game has yet to be re-arranged and could be the last game of the season.
CYCLOPS said,
April 2, 2007 @ 1:31 am
Are the semi finals FA CUP 2007 played to a finish or are there replays??
cant find answer to this anywhere
Thx
Would be glad if you could post me the source of your findings, Thx again.
Barry said,
April 2, 2007 @ 11:11 am
Cyclops, the semi finals like the final will be played to a conclusion on the day. Meaning that if necessary there will be extra-time and even penalties. Like you I had little success in finding this on the web, so I called my contact at the FA to have them confirm my suspicions.
If you need any further information please get in contact again.
Fozzie said,
April 15, 2007 @ 12:18 am
why is 2007 going to be the last time villa park is used as a venue for a semi-final match?
Barry said,
April 15, 2007 @ 12:55 am
Fozzie, The reason this year is the last time that Villa Park is going to be used as a semi final venue is because Wembley will be available for Semi-Finals next season.
From next season both semi-finals will be played in Wembley on the same weekend, just as they did before Wembley was redeveloped in 2000.
I hope this helps!
Fozzie (an egg chaser and armchair Villa Fan) said,
April 16, 2007 @ 8:50 am
Thanks for that Barry. I seem to remember from before 2000 though, that both semi-finals were always played on neutral turf (usually one of them at Villa park because they’re so crap but the ground is good). Only the finalists got to walk out onto the hallowed turf. It seems as though income for Wembley takes priority which I can understand because they’re so over budget, but it takes the edge off the target of playing at Wembley.
Barry said,
April 17, 2007 @ 10:43 am
The FA always historically used Villa Park and Hillsborough due to the size of the stadiums. Back before the introduction of the Premier League and Champions League and all the money they brought to the game, the FA tried to find suitable homes for the Semi-Finals that suited both sets of fans. I think the first post war semi-final to be played at Wembley was Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal in 1991.
The success of that fixture led to both semi-finals being played there in 1993 and 1994. You are right though after spending in excess of £700m on the facility the FA are trying to recoup as much of the money as possible.
I know the Wembley should be the sanctuary of finalists but we need to remember that playing a Manchester Unite or Chelsea in a Semi-Final is the equivalent of a cup final to some teams. The target isn’t playing at Wembley, the target is winning the trophy.
However most footballers seem to be more concerned with driving Ferraris and buying bling than winning medals at the moment, thanks to monetary saturation of the game.