Leeds are at Wembley on the Sunday as details finally announced
Thursday, 9th Apr 2026 15:55 by Tim Whelan
For some reason it’s taken the authorities four days to decide the date and time of our FA Cup Semi Final against Chelsea, but at last we know that it’s going to kick off at 3pm on Sunday 26th April.
Which at least puts an end to some of the growing frustration from fans who want to be able to book travel and accommodation before prices go even further through the roof.
Yesterday the Leeds United Supporters Trust put out a statement saying "We have reached out to both Leeds United and The Football Supporters’ Association to understand the slowness in announcing details for the FA Cup semi-final”.
“Having liaised with the club, they are still in the dark and waiting on governing bodies, the police and broadcaster to come to a final decision. It’s not acceptable that we go into the fourth day since the draw, with no details leaving thousands of fans in limbo."
I would guess that the delay was down to having to liaise with the police, who would have been a little bit anxious about the prospect of Leeds and Chelsea fans drinking in close proximity until late in the afternoon. So I was expecting that we’d get the Sunday game, and I’m only surprised that they didn’t insist on a kick-off earlier than 3pm!
So we now know the date and time, but of course most fans will want to know if they have a ticket before committing a large sum of money for travel to Wembley, which they won’t want to waste if they can’t get in. The statement on the official Leeds United site says Ticket information will be announced in due course”, so that’s the next thing we will have to wait for.
Last season’s the FA Cup semi-finalists were all given between 34,000 and just over 36,000 tickets per club, and it’s expected these figures will be roughly the same this year. The danger is that prices for travel will shoot up the nearer we get to the day. On the National Rail website tickets are still quoting the usual Super Off-Peak Single fare of £144.80
But three morning trains down to London, and the 20.09 and 20.36 coming back are showing “We have been unable to find a valid fare. Please re-plan your journey”, which may well mean that they are already fully booked. We won’t want to book any trains earlier than the 20.09, as we need to allow for the possibility of extra time and penalties before we can start to head back to Kings Cross.
With difficulty of travelling down on the day some fans will want to get to the capital the day before, but our game is the same day as the London marathon. Which might affect hotel prices, even though the marathon starts on the opposite side of the city. Perhaps the best bet would be to stay somewhere to the just to the north of London, to leave a relatively short journey on the day.
One option for getting in for the truly rich and desperate is corporate hospitality, but a post I’ve seen on social media claims this will cost over £800 for our game and only £200 for the other semi-final. That’s because it’s all supply and demand, and Man City fans can hardly be bothered about semi-finals, when they go to Wembley so often as it is.
If you don't manage to get a ticket, the game is being televised live by TNT Sports, and streamed on HBO Max. Or you could just go down the pub.
So it all sound like good fun. You can look out for one of my ‘Awaydaze’ articles, which I will publish nearer the time with more details of all things FA Cup Semi-Final.
Reuters
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