The pitch at Wembley Stadium is not fit for England’s home of football

Now this is not a dig at either Chelsea or Everton, the two all-blue protagonists destined to meet in the knockout dénouement to the domestic season.

I may not have overmuch time for either club. My tribal footy fealty resides in the red of Liverpool, thereby naturally detesting the nouveau riche of the Stamford Bridge Blues while relegating the Everton Toffees to somewhere in the realm of ribald laughter. Everton, a big club? Well, yes Rafa, they are, but the people’s club as they profess to be? Nah, no way. Give me Tranmere any day.

Anyway, away from all the sneer and loathing, it’s not the respective FA Cup finalists that have prompted a call for a boycott of the May 30 showdown. To be precise, it’s the very venue.

Wembley – no longer new Wembley surely as a “new road layout ahead” sign loses its impact after being visible for say more than two years – is the cause of suggesting May 30 be a football blackout day.

It’s not the stadium itself. The arena is a startling creation that dwarfs its twin-towered predecessor, which for many years was a battered, jaded, faded and tattered excuse for a national stadium before it was finally torn down.

The sole problem with Wembley is the playing surface. The one area of the entire development in North London that needs to be perfect is completely out of synch with the modernity and high-spec nature of the edifice that surrounds it.

As evident by the two FA Cup semi-finals, you merely have to breathe on the pitch and it starts to crumble. When two tribes go to spar on the pitch with their multi-coloured bladed boots, then it cuts up more easily than a newly-baked Victoria sponge.

The state of the surface was heavily criticised by Manchester United chief Sir Alex Ferguson and his Arsenal counterpart Arsene Wenger and many would say their carping was just another display of the grapes of wrath after both their teams exited the competition at the most painful hurdle.

But even the least myopic or biased of bystanders would surely agree that the playing surface at the national stadium is not fit to grace England’s home of the game.

Between now and the FA Cup final there’s another ten games to be played on the much-maligned surface, including, no less, York City’s FA Trophy final appearance against Stevenage two weeks from today.

So can anyone truly expect a feast of football when Chelsea and Everton meet on the final Saturday of next month? If the final turns out to be a genuine spectacle then it will surely be in spite of the surface the various 20-odd players will have to ply their trade upon.

Much has been made over the past few years as the lure of Champions League football has gained a greater foothold in the consciousness of the English elite, that top clubs have more and more treated the FA Cup with scant regard. Fielding weakened teams under the guise of rotation has been viewed as hugely disrespectful to the competition that climaxes in the end of season domestic showpiece.

Well, the FA are guilty too of ill-treating t’owd pot. They should be held to account for allowing Wembley’s surface to be in the parlous state it now finds itself. For a pitch to be true it has to be laid and given time to bed in – even a rookie gardener who favours paving over lawn knows that.

But to try to meet the bill of rebuilding Wembley the FA have prostituted the stadium. Concerts, death-defying motor events and even American football have decimated the turf to the detriment of what it is primarily designed to host – football matches.

When the pitch is relaid again, time to give it time, otherwise May 30 could be a date to forget and not remember in the annals of Wembley.

WHAT a display, what a strike-rate. Not even Messrs Shearer, Fowler, Ferdinand, Sheringham, Cole and Owen could match the exploits of Russian assassin Andrey Arshavin in the midweek 4-4 draw at Anfield.

The Gunners had just four shots on target, all from Arshavin and all rippling the net.