Palace Slam Ticket Allocation & Kick-Off Time for 'Highly-Charged' FA Cup Clash With Brighton

Crystal Palace have said that they are "surprised and disappointed" that the ticket allocation given for their FA Cup match with bitter rivals Brighton & Hove Albion, which is scheduled to take place on a Monday evening, will not cater for an overwhelming demand from Eagles supporters.

Despite the two sides sharing the points at the end of November when they met in the Premier League, all the talk after the game was about fan trouble which saw two stewards hospitalised for their injuries.

"We raised concerns about playing the league match between the two clubs at night, as there have been previous issues when we played evening games in the Championship, but felt we were presented with a no option scenario," the club said in a statement on their website.

"Given the events that occurred, we assumed that this time what we considered to be good sense would prevail and the game would be scheduled as an early daytime kick off. 

"We are also disappointed that our ticket allocation for the FA Cup match has again been restricted to 2,000 when we should be entitled to more than 4,600 tickets under normal FA Cup rules.

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"We completely understand the security concerns around this match and the safety of all supporters must be paramount.

"It’s for that very reason that we felt the best and most obvious solution, as is the case with most other big, highly-charged derby games, would have been a lunchtime kick-off, combined with a bigger ticket allocation to cater for the overwhelming demand from our supporters, many of whom will again be left disappointed.

"We strongly believe that the very small minority who misbehave and create disorder should be punished to the full extent of the law, thereby deterring others. Instead, it’s our view that the many decent and law-abiding supporters are being punished by being deprived of the opportunity to enjoy supporting their team."