Don't pretend you didn't expect this

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Where do we even start?

The fact that health and safety has been used as a reason to give Spurs a reduced allocation of tickets for the FA Cup third round game away to Arsenal - that's just over 5k (5,186 and 8.64% to be exact) rather than the full beefy 15% / 9k. No problem allocating to other visiting teams in cups games but it's a no go to retain the same tradition when facing Tottenham. If the awkward kick-off time to appease television coverage wasn't bad enough.

That's the magic of the cup right there lads. Led by television which is led by the revenue made. The decisions with how a game of football is played out is beyond our consideration. We are merely the after thought in all this, squeezed into the days time-table without a seconds thought allowing them (Arsenal, the FA, the police etc) to control the environment to their pleasing. The alternative would be allowing 9,000 strong Spurs fans invading a little cancerous anomaly in North London for ninety minutes and some. God forbid we dirty the marbled pavements around the cesspit with our gentle footsteps.

It's all pretty much a soulless conclusion but then I'm over dramatising my anger because let's face it, nobody truly believed we'd be given the full 9k allocation. Health and safety remains the go-to-guy for most things these days (i.e. persistent standing).

Once again it's about money and taking advantage of the love of the game we - the commoners - have for it. Because of that love we'll continue to pump our hard earned cash down the hungry throat of the monster we all created that continues to eat its self in this relentless demented cannibalistic ritual.

I'm trying to wrap my head around how a new state of the art stadium (we are told) isn't fit to house Spurs supporters even though it's been able to do the same for other visiting fans offered the full allocation? Like Chelsea in this season League Cup for twenty quid a pop.

Surely any given stand that usually houses the away support can be expanded thanks to those other seats surrounding it? If all seats in the stadium are going to be filled with supporters then why can't 9,000 seats be filled with supporters associated to the same club?

Health and safety? Security issues and segregation relating to their upper and lower tier? What a load of b*llocks.

If the stewarding and policing of Chelsea fans in the League Cup was problematic how about fixing the problems highlighted in that game so that  future visiting clubs and their supporters are not robbed of attending? You know, prioritise the fans once in a while. Make your life harder to make our lives easier so the full allocation is met, otherwise clubs will make up the rules as they go along to fit their own personal agenda.

The nomadic franchise once again hides behind the fallacy of class and continues to fester as an icon of everything that stinks about modern football. The irony is, they're doing their own fans an injustice. Surely having an army of visiting supporters will add to the intensity of the game.

Alas no. This is simply about it being Tottenham Hotspur and not wanting to bother.

What happens if the game goes to a replay? Does half of the Park Lane shut up shop to accommodate them? We could just give them the executive boxes in the West Stand, lay on some lobster and ribs. Or will the potential of them choking on bones mean health and safety will reject our hospitality?

If it does go to a replay Spurs have already confirmed they will give a reduced allocation equivalent to the 8.64%. Not because we have to but because we want to. Which is basically the logic behind their decision.

On top of all this, sixty-two quid to visit a swamp? If I want to roll around in sh*t I'd...er...oh yeah...I'd have to visit the Emirates. I guess I should be grateful that Tottenham deducted so many of my loyalty points I'd need the wings of a sparrow and the arse of a crow to get there on the day.