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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...ub-colours-ban-by-wembley-will-only-spoil-th/
FA Cup final 2016: Club colours ban by Wembley will only spoil the party when Man Utd tackle Crystal Palace
19 MAY 2016 • 7:57PM
Replica shirts, scarves, hats, flags and foam hands in club colours will be banned CREDIT: REX FEATURES
The message is stark. It has been emailed to everyone with a seat in the Club Wembley section of the national stadium for Saturday’s FA Cup final. The following, it insists, will not be allowed: replica shirts; scarves, hats, flags and foam hands in club colours; any clothing item with a club brand on it; bags with a club brand on them; face paint indicating an association to one team; badges and lanyards with club brand on them.
Should any such hint of fealty be sported, the missive continues, you may be refused entry or be removed from the stadium “for your own safety”.
CREDIT: REX FEATURES
I had no idea that wearing a scarf, rosette or lapel badge somehow jeopardises personal safety. Until now I have managed to open a safety pin, or wrap a strip of synthetic material round my neck without hospitalisation. Even foam hands I have wielded without taking out my own eye. Wembley, though, know better. In essence, what they are warning against is the inherent dangers in turning up to a football match dressed as a football fan. Alan Pardew be warned: if anyone spots you are wearing a red and blue Crystal Palace club tie down there on the touchline, you could be given your marching orders.
Alan Smith: three things that will decide the FA Cup final winnerPlay!01:47
You might think such absurdist Draconian sanctions will have little impact on what until now has always been the most colourful match of the football season. After all, the rules apply only in the corporate section, the place where moneyed freeloaders and event junkies overdose on the hospitality, barely aware of the drama unfolding below. And in the public seats, foam hands can still be wielded without fear of eviction. Except this is the Cup final. Which, history suggests, means that proper diehard fans of both finalists will find their way to the posh seats in their hundreds, driven there by the scarcity of cheap admissions. This year, however, having forked out half their life savings for the privilege, they will discover that they will be evicted if they demonstrate any physical evidence of their affiliation.
The colours bar will mean television pictures of a stadium filled with red, white and blue apart from a monochrome band in the middle
A Wembley spokesman insisted this is because the corporate areas are not segregated. Apparently they are anxious to reduce the potential for confrontation in the champagne bar. But the unintended consequence will be to make the corporate sections appear ever more separate from the thrum.
Supporters are a vital ingredient of Cup final day, projecting around the globe the sense that this is an event that matters. The colours bar will mean television pictures of a stadium filled with red, white and blue apart from a monochrome band in the middle. Worse will be the section behind the dugouts, the one in direct line of the television cameras.
That is the place which is invariably devoid of any spectators for the first 10 minutes of the second half, the empty seats thumbing their noses at the thousands of genuine fans who would love to be there.
Now, even when the latecomers file back from the prawn sandwich queue, they will look ever more detached from the colourful glories unfolding around them.
Indeed, those building the next generation of stadiums have appreciated this design fault.
At Tottenham’s new White Hart Lane there will be no middle tier of corporate seats.
Instead there will be a 17,000-capacity home end, a complete stretch of proper enthusiasm, unbroken by corporate section, which will be sited elsewhere, well out of sight of the cameras.
Sadly Wembley has the wedge of pricey seats built into its structure. And now they appear determined to draw attention to its bland indifference by banishing any hint of occasion. For those watching in colour, this will be the black and white final
FA Cup final 2016: Club colours ban by Wembley will only spoil the party when Man Utd tackle Crystal Palace
19 MAY 2016 • 7:57PM
Replica shirts, scarves, hats, flags and foam hands in club colours will be banned CREDIT: REX FEATURES
The message is stark. It has been emailed to everyone with a seat in the Club Wembley section of the national stadium for Saturday’s FA Cup final. The following, it insists, will not be allowed: replica shirts; scarves, hats, flags and foam hands in club colours; any clothing item with a club brand on it; bags with a club brand on them; face paint indicating an association to one team; badges and lanyards with club brand on them.
Should any such hint of fealty be sported, the missive continues, you may be refused entry or be removed from the stadium “for your own safety”.
CREDIT: REX FEATURES
I had no idea that wearing a scarf, rosette or lapel badge somehow jeopardises personal safety. Until now I have managed to open a safety pin, or wrap a strip of synthetic material round my neck without hospitalisation. Even foam hands I have wielded without taking out my own eye. Wembley, though, know better. In essence, what they are warning against is the inherent dangers in turning up to a football match dressed as a football fan. Alan Pardew be warned: if anyone spots you are wearing a red and blue Crystal Palace club tie down there on the touchline, you could be given your marching orders.
Alan Smith: three things that will decide the FA Cup final winnerPlay!01:47
You might think such absurdist Draconian sanctions will have little impact on what until now has always been the most colourful match of the football season. After all, the rules apply only in the corporate section, the place where moneyed freeloaders and event junkies overdose on the hospitality, barely aware of the drama unfolding below. And in the public seats, foam hands can still be wielded without fear of eviction. Except this is the Cup final. Which, history suggests, means that proper diehard fans of both finalists will find their way to the posh seats in their hundreds, driven there by the scarcity of cheap admissions. This year, however, having forked out half their life savings for the privilege, they will discover that they will be evicted if they demonstrate any physical evidence of their affiliation.
The colours bar will mean television pictures of a stadium filled with red, white and blue apart from a monochrome band in the middle
A Wembley spokesman insisted this is because the corporate areas are not segregated. Apparently they are anxious to reduce the potential for confrontation in the champagne bar. But the unintended consequence will be to make the corporate sections appear ever more separate from the thrum.
Supporters are a vital ingredient of Cup final day, projecting around the globe the sense that this is an event that matters. The colours bar will mean television pictures of a stadium filled with red, white and blue apart from a monochrome band in the middle. Worse will be the section behind the dugouts, the one in direct line of the television cameras.
That is the place which is invariably devoid of any spectators for the first 10 minutes of the second half, the empty seats thumbing their noses at the thousands of genuine fans who would love to be there.
Now, even when the latecomers file back from the prawn sandwich queue, they will look ever more detached from the colourful glories unfolding around them.
Indeed, those building the next generation of stadiums have appreciated this design fault.
At Tottenham’s new White Hart Lane there will be no middle tier of corporate seats.
Instead there will be a 17,000-capacity home end, a complete stretch of proper enthusiasm, unbroken by corporate section, which will be sited elsewhere, well out of sight of the cameras.
Sadly Wembley has the wedge of pricey seats built into its structure. And now they appear determined to draw attention to its bland indifference by banishing any hint of occasion. For those watching in colour, this will be the black and white final
