The Football Association has turned down a request from Arsenal to play their FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United at the Millennium Stadium.
Instead the match will be played at Villa Park on Saturday April 3, with a noon kick-off, after United made it clear they opposed the idea of playing the semi-final at the same venue as the final. The game will be shown live on BBC. Sky will screen the second semi-final at Old Trafford on April 4 between Sunderland and the winners of Tuesday's replay between Tranmere Rovers and Millwall.
Arsenal had asked for their semi-final to be moved because of the immense demand for tickets, pointing out that Villa Park can hold only 42,600 compared with Cardiff's 74,500. However, United were adamant the match should be played at the Birmingham venue. They argued their fans would be greatly inconvenienced by a lunchtime kick-off in south Wales.
足总驳回了阿森纳要求在卡迪夫千年球场和曼联进行半决赛的请求。
在曼联申明反对这个半决赛和决赛在同一块场地进行的提议后，比赛将会安排在维拉公园体育场，中午开球。这场比赛英国广播公司BBC将会直播，而另一场比赛是由天空电视台转播，对阵双方将是桑德兰与特雷米或者是米尔沃之间的胜者。
出于球票收入的考虑，阿森纳提议将半决赛移到千年球场进行。维拉公园体育场支能够容纳42600名球迷，而卡迪夫千年球场能够容纳74500名球迷。然而，曼联坚决要求比赛在伯明翰城市的维拉公园体育场进行，他们声称他们的球迷会很难办到在一个午餐时刻赶到南威尔士。
新闻连接：记得去年我们对英丙球队牛津队的时候，比赛就被要求放在我们海布里球场，因为本来抽到的事牛津主场，而他们的场地只能容纳10000多人。后来牛津队出于晋级无望还不如多收点钱的考虑，同意了比赛场地转到伦敦。
