6,000 City fans will be at Wembley

FOR the first time in 15 months, a significant crowd of Leicester City fans will be present today, with just over 6,000 supporters watching the club’s FA Cup final at Wembley.

While there were a handful of City fans present for the semi-final, they were there as key workers who had won tickets through ballots.

Now a throng of supporters will be travelling down from the city to the national stadium to cheer on the club.

With restrictions on social distancing and Covid tests, it has not been ideal, especially with controversy surrounding travel for the game, with around 3,500 fans forced to go by coach as part of the government’s pilot testing.

Those coach tickets set fans back £45, although £7 has now been refunded.

Leicester City chief executive Susan Whelan said: “We’re enormously grateful to our fans for the lengths to which they have gone to comply with ERP (Events Research Programme) protocols relative to Saturday’s final – further than spectators for any event in the ERP up to now.

“It’s also important we recognise the responsibility we all have as participants in the ERP, the results of which will take us all a step closer to the full stadiums and unforgettable experiences to which we’re all longing to return.”

Both captain Kasper Schmeichel and manager Brendan Rodgers know the impact fans can have.

“It will just be nice to have fans, there were 4,000 for the semi final and even in such a big stadium it made a difference,” Schmeichel said.

“I’m very much looking forward to playing in front of fans again.

“Football isn’t the same in empty stadiums, there isn’t that sense of occasion and I think in particular an FA Cup Final deserves to have fans and an atmosphere and something to make the occasion.”