The Football Association and its subsidiary Wembley National Stadium Limited (WSNL) is guilty of regionalism, culminating in the spectacle of hundreds of thousands of Mancunians traipsing down to an obscure place called Brent to watch two Manchester teams, City and United, three times in one year. It is also regionalism in its most crude form to expect football fans to travel from the regions to London to watch their national football team. This government should redress the regional balance and stop the FA from regional discrimination in this way which leads to hundreds of thousands of fans paying millions into the coffers of transport systems, South East tourism and the FA. This is particularly galling under a government that tells us to be more economic with our finances. The question should be: why isn’t the FA more economic with our finances as well? The Government needs to understand that the North and other regions have economies that need supporting, too. We should be able to upgrade existing stadia that could act for the regions and qualify for England matches by rote or Cup Finals by location. We need law to curtail organisations like the FA from implementing this type of regional discrimination.

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