Jordan Henderson has been at Liverpool and in football long enough to realise that the interests of the fans are rarely top priority.
Speaking with the media ahead of England’s latest international friendlies, our captain spoke about the decision for the game between ourselves and Manchester City remaining at the national stadium (via BBC Sport): ‘I think this time, I’ve been thinking a bit more about the fans.
‘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’.
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‘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 – it is really disappointing to see that it’s a struggle and it’s got to be expensive for them to get there.
‘I love playing at Wembley – I would like to keep Wembley for finals anyway, I think that was quite exciting, quite good and then obviously the final at Wembley to make it extra special’.
It wouldn’t have been hard to put the game in a neutral North-West, or closer than London, venue on this one occasion, because of the train issues that will be occurring that weekend.
As our No.14 said too, Wembley should be for the finals and for the show-piece events – having semi-finals cheapens the experience and is an unnecessary cost for anyone outside of the country’s capital.
Instead we get 100 buses to share with the fans from the Etihad Stadium, packed motorways and if there are any accidents on the journey – there’s most of the supporters missing the start of the game.
Football without fans is nothing, until money comes into it…
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I think both sets of fan should stay at home and watch it on tv, and have a few beers. I know it’s hard, missing the game and the atmosphere but fans need to start standing up for themselves, make your voice heard, tell the greedy fa they are not being abused no longer. If fans give in its their own fault for not voicing their displeasure about this situation. Show solidarity.