Tamworth FC have been criticised for a huge hike in ticket prices for the non-League club’s FA Cup third-round tie against Tottenham Hotspur.

Tamworth are the only non-League club to host a tie in the next round of the competition having made it through the qualifying, as well as the first and second rounds.

The Staffordshire club, who are 15th in the fifth tier of the English pyramid, normally charge fans £20 for adults and it is free for under 10s to watch games in their 4,963 capacity stadium.

But having seen FA Cup replays scrapped by the Football Association, depriving lower-league clubs of a potentially money-spinning trip to a big ground and the extra income that comes with it, the minnows have taken the decision to cash in on their big day against Spurs.

A ticket for one of the 518 seats in the main stand will cost an eye-watering £42, with an adult standing ticket rising to £38. A child ticket will cost £29.

Fans from across the football community attacked the decision. One user on X said: “How short-sighted are these prices? A chance to repay and respect the fans that go and support you every week, and instead you release this monstrosity. Shameful.”

Another said: “That pricing is an absolute disgrace. You should seriously reconsider what you’re doing. What a joke.”

It was also pointed out that the timing of the ticket-price rise, perhaps understandable given the precious extra income it would bring into a non-League club, was terrible coming so soon after Christmas.

One said: “Thoughts with regular match-goers, and in particular families just after Christmas and with this pricing. Awful”.

Others, though, were quick to point out that this sort of thing will happen more often as lower-league clubs know they are no longer playing to earn a lucrative replay against bigger league clubs. The Football Association decided to scrap FA Cup replays to ease fixture congestion concerns of top-flight and Championship clubs.

Former Premier League winger, Darren Ambrose, told Talksport: “I’m not here to batter Tamworth and I’m not here to stick up for Tamworth, but I’m in two minds about this. I think they’ve made an error in the under-10s [pricing] – £29 for an under 10 and over 66 could be decreased. Maybe members or season-ticket holders should get a discount.

“But the other side of it is this is a generational game for Tamworth. How often are they going to have a top Premier League side come to their place? So, why can’t they cash in on it? That’s going to get a mixed reaction, I know that.

“One of the things about this is there are no replays. If somehow Tamworth take Spurs to a draw – and I say somehow, that could actually happen at the moment by the way – there’s no extra revenue to be made on the replay, there aren’t any!

“I think they should definitely reduce the kids’ tickets, because that’s not right. If you’ve got a family and you want to take your kids to watch your local team against a top Premier League club, do it for free. Let kids under 10 in for free, even if you’re going to keep the £42 main ticket, which is steep and probably a little bit overpriced. But these clubs are not run by millionaires and billionaires. They run week in, week out and they’re trying to cash in to keep the club running for the next however many years, which makes sense.”