I’d like to know how and why so many United fans were allowed to permeate the stadium on Tuesday night. I sit in Block 115 and am aware that for Champions League games we allocate seats next to this area to the opposing team for corporate tickets and what looked to me last night like friends and family tickets judging by the amount of people there waving to the players and attracting their attention at the end. However, and particularly considering the club’s continual attempts to foster the ‘respect’ attitude that keeps being bandied about these days, this appeared to me to be nothing more than crass commercialism and profiteering at the hands of the real fans.

No doubt MUFC were able to buy these seats at hugely inflated prices, but what about all the Arsenal fans requested in all the pre-match literature and media to create a special atmosphere and roar the team to victory? A number of fans had to be held back by stewards and police in this area for fear of a repeat of Heysel. Clearly these people shouldn’t be allowed on the streets in the first place but that’s another point, surely it can’t help when away fans are in the home ‘end’ can it?

The away end makes more noise than Arsenal’s home fans every game and I’m used to that, but for such a huge occasion was it necessary or appropriate to give the travelling support such a big area in the away enclosure? I don’t how many of them there were but it looked like a good five or six thousand to me. So in total they had somewhere around 7,000 supporters in the stadium, over 10% of the seats. How many were we allocated in the first leg? About 5,000 I believe, in a 75,000 seat stadium (6-7%).

How can the club expect people who already prefer to eat their prawn sandwiches in their Armani suits (don’t get me wrong I am a City professional myself but hate the attitude of some of our fans (incidentally the guy sitting next to me last night – Block 115, Row 24, Seat 678 – you know who you are, left after HALF AN HOUR, an absolute disgrace of a ‘fan’ whose employer presumably bore the cost of his ticket. I’m pretty sure he even had the balls to take his free flag home with him for his 2.4 kids. And we call United fans plastic…)) while berating their own players to lend maximum vocal support when the Board are willing to sacrifice home support for a few more quid?

Real fans who can afford season tickets at today’s prices are few and far between and what we are seeing is our beloved club selling itself out to people who care about the team as much as Adebayor does about playing for it (nil, or less, if that’s possible). Before we know it there’ll be people in yellow and orange ties sipping Bollinger and Pimm’s and politely clapping away goals.

Give the genuine fans something back and let’s get an atmosphere in the Emirates we can be proud to call home support, not the debacle that ensued on Tuesday night.