Trains complicate the semifinal between Liverpool and Manchester City

London, 23 Mar The mayors of the cities of Liverpool and Manchester have called for the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Manchester City to change venue, from Wembley to another stadium, due to the lack of trains to London. The match will be played on the weekend of April 16-17 at Wembley Stadium, but, due to some renovation work, there will be no trains from Manchester and Liverpool to London from 15 to 18 April. The mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, and the mayor of Liverpool, Steve Rotheram, have asked in a letter to the English federation to choose a stadium “more accessible to fans” and that does not involve having to drive, fly, complex train trips or overpay accommodation. “With the rise in fuels, it is clear that fans of both teams will have to bear huge costs, and the environmental impact will be greater. For the past two years, we've heard the slogan “football is nothing without fans”. If the decision is to play at Wembley, those words will have no meaning,” the mayors said in the letter. “We think the most obvious solution is to move the game to a more accessible stadium.” As the mayors explained in the letter, the works on the railway network had been scheduled since 2019 and that the FA had been aware of this since last autumn and, despite this, they placed the match that weekend. Traditionally, the semifinals and finals of the FA Cup have been played in a single match at Wembley. The other semifinal will be played by two teams from the capital, Crystal Palace and Chelsea.