Loyal fans locked out from Chelsea's Double dream

Some years ago I discovered a stash of my dad's old Chelsea match programmes in a box. Aside from the social history contained within their pages (letters to the editor a particular mine of joyful mirth), any little monetary value in the collection was lost – as each, from the 1960-70 season, had been butchered with scissors.

Those long enough in the tooth will recall that back then, queuing wasn't enough to secure an FA Cup final ticket. Crude vouchers, clipped out of the back cover, were the way the club created a hierarchy of those most deserving – a system very far from satisfactory, as there were always unfair cases of winners and losers.

That was the occasion of Chelsea's first FA Cup win and, as the club push towards what is hoped will be their eighth time lifting the trophy, access to tickets remains a thorny issue.

Now, a form of technology is employed, with season ticket holders ranked according to how many so-called 'loyalty points' they have, awarded on the basis of matchgoing prowess over the last campaign.

Chelsea's allocation of 28,000 for the Wembley showpiece on the face of things amply covers their roughly 25,000 season ticket holders. But that number is first depleted by the quotients set aside for corporate attendees, as well as the players' families and suchlike – who need to show no loyalty to jump the queue.

The allocation is not as bad as in some past Wembley finals, and Arsenal, with their larger stadium and longer season ticket list, will find allocating their half of the stadium even more fraught than Chelsea.

The reality is that any form of 'loyalty' employed to place people in order of merit for attendance at a game many times over-subscribed is, by its very nature, going to be arbitrary – and both fans' groups and the club accept this. No system will ever be perfect, and for the most part the aim is to get the least worst way, which causes upset to the fewest number of deserving causes.

The bigger issue, of course, is that ticket allocation: you won't need to be a maths genius to work out that 28,000 tickets for each of two sets of finalists falls a long way short of Wembley's 90,000 capacity. And it is here, with the many thousands of tickets set aside for what is euphemistically referred to as 'the footballing family', that real reform is needed.

That 'family' is made up of execs of the game's corporate sponsors, members of fusty and dusty county FA committees rarely with any relevant team allegiances, and the much-derided Club Wembley: essentially, fine dining wrapped around a kick-about.

Of course, those tickets are what keeps football going: favours, financial and otherwise, are the currency that much of the top end of our game trades upon. The scandal of poor FA Cup final allocations is as old as the hills, and one wonders if anyone with legitimate influence will ever come to address it. But this tradition is not just limited to the world's oldest cup competition.

Chelsea, of course, are up for the Double. And this coming Friday night's Premier League match at West Brom is one of the most sought-after tickets in years for Blues' fans.

Tickets have again been distributed for this on the basis of loyalty, but Chelsea's allocation is just 2,773 on the night – in keeping with usual Premier League guidelines, but a section which could be sold several times over.

The Hawthorns holds 26,850 – and has not been sold out to that capacity at any stage this season. For the most part, crowds are a good 2,000 below that – tickets Chelsea could easily sell to visiting fans.

But the well-rehearsed arguments against – segregation, administration, and a large dose of 'computer says no' – will see supporters of the champions elect locked out, while seats in home sections remain empty.

Vacant capacity, for one of the hottest tickets of the season.

Even if it often feels like paying fans are the very last consideration when it comes to those who run the game, surely they could for once see common sense when there is such a strong desire to fill the gap left by that lost revenue?