ONLY 25,000 TICKETS

Chelsea and Manchester United will each receive approximately 25,000 tickets for the FA Cup final at the new Wembley on May 19.

The Football Association met representatives of both clubs yesterday and thrashed out the deal, which represents an increase of 1,500 on the number of tickets Liverpool and West Ham each received for the 2006 final, the last to be held at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Although the rebuilt Wembley has a 90,000 capacity, and supporters of the clubs involved traditionally complain about allocations which come nowhere near their average attendance - Chelsea and United being a case in point - the FA believes it also has a duty to the rest of the game. As a result, 30% of tickets have been allocated to people in what the FA calls "football and the football family".

In essence this means the 92 Premiership and Football League clubs, the 134 full-member clubs, other clubs who reached the third round of this season's competition, charities, the Football Foundation, Premier League, Football League, Football Conference, PFA, international associations, Fifa, Uefa and county football associations.

An FA spokesman said: "The FA Cup final is a unique sporting event. This year the demand for tickets will be greater than ever due to it being the first Cup final back at Wembley.

"It is undoubtedly the biggest domestic cup final in the world and as such it belongs to the whole country as well as the two competing teams and their supporters.

"It is also an occasion to reward the thousands of individuals who give up their time and energy to football, without whom the grassroots game would not function."