Crystal Palace 'disappointed' at ticket allocation and kick off time for Brighton FA Cup match

Crystal Palace have hit out at both their reduced ticket allocation and the timing of the FA Cup third round against Brighton and Hove Albion amid fears that an evening kick-off will heighten the security risk.

There was significant disorder around their goalless draw at the Amex Stadium last week and, in expressing “disappointment” at another evening kick-off and away allocation of 2,000, Palace have suggested that similar concerns before the Premier League game were ignored.

“Given the events that occurred, we assumed that this time what we considered to be good sense would prevail and the game would be scheduled as an early daytime kick-off,” said a statement. “The safety of all supporters must be paramount. It’s for that very reason that we felt the best and most obvious solution, as is the case with most other big, highly-charged derby games, would have been a lunchtime kick-off, combined with a bigger ticket allocation to cater for the overwhelming demand from our supporters.”

Two Brighton stewards were taken to hospital and six fans were arrested following the disorder outside the Amex. A police investigation is ongoing and, while Brighton have accused a minority of Palace supporters of being “intent on causing disorder”, they have also promised “zero tolerance” bans to any of their own fans who misbehaved.

The FA Cup match will be screened live on BT Sport and, in consultation with a safety advisory group that includes Brighton, the local authority, police and fire service, has been moved to Monday, Jan 8 at 7.45pm. Brighton had ideally wanted a Sunday lunchtime slot but there are engineering works on the train line over the weekend of the FA Cup third round and the safety advisory group wanted there to be a special service for away fans in order to minimise conflict.

With Monday the only option for that train service due to the weekend engineering works, it was decided that it represented the least worst decision. Palace, though, were aware of the train problems and say they were ready to put on alternative travel for their fans. 

“We have offered to provide free coaches to negate this issue, also allowing supporters to be dropped and picked up from designated drop off and pick up points,” said the Palace statement.

Palace have been told that the disorder last week was partly caused by fans with tickets colluding with un-ticketed fans to force entry into the stadium and have questioned another reduced allocation, especially as FA Cup rules permit 15 per cent of a home stadium and so would allow a theoretical maximum of 4,600. 

“It’s our view that the many decent and law-abiding supporters are being punished by being deprived of the opportunity to enjoy supporting their team,” said the statement. 

Palace supporters are also aggrieved that chief inspector Simon Nelson, who led the police operation for the Premier League match, had claimed that a number of fans had “knives and knuckledusters”.

Sussex Police were subsequently forced to admit that the statement was wrong. It had followed a Freedom of Information request by the Palace fanzine ‘Five Year Plan’, who have now submitted a new request into the policing for the game and subsequent reports of disorder.

 “We would like to understand the process involved in determining what the original statement from Sussex Police would contain and whether either club were notified or consulted,” said Robert Sutherland, who edits the Five Year Plan. “We want to understand where the information came from that weapons had been obtained by police, and to understand how a statement was released.”