How Arsenal can avoid paying £500,000 FA Cup fine as Gunners sanctioned for Man Utd ticket row

Arsenal have been slapped with a whopping £500,000 fine for breaching FA Cup ticketing rules last season, but the Gunners may not have to pay a penny.

Mikel Arteta's men crashed out of the prestigious competition at the first hurdle in the 2024-25 campaign, losing on penalties to Manchester United at the Emirates in the third round.

The Gunners' defeat prevented them from going for a record-extending 15th title in the tournament, having won their 14th and most recent crown under Arteta during the COVID-affected 2019-20 season.

Nearly exactly nine months on from that gut-wrenching loss, Arsenal have now landed themselves in hot water for their failure to allocate Man United their correct number of tickets for the third-round game.

According to the Evening Standard, Arsenal should have handed the Red Devils an allocation of 9,000 tickets for the match, which would have represented 15% of the Gunners' 60,000-capacity stadium.

Why Arsenal were fined £500,000 for Man United FA Cup ticket row

However, only 7,956 Man United supporters were permitted into the stadium, which saw Arsenal fail to comply with FA Cup Rule 192, and the issue was passed onto the Professional Game Board.

The Gunners supposedly argued that they could not hand out 9,000 away tickets due to safety concerns, as some Man United fans would have been housed in the upper tier of the ground, where persistent standing is banned.

As a result, away supporters would not have been permitted to watch the game from those areas of the Emirates, and there was no possibility of housing 9,000 away fans in just the lower tiers.

Nevertheless, Arsenal were found to have been in breach of FA Cup Rule 192 by the PGB, and they have been hit with a £500,000 sanction, but the fine is suspended providing the Gunners comply with a certain set of criteria.

How Arsenal can get out of paying £500,000 FA Cup fine

In order to avoid paying the fine, Arsenal must firstly confirm that they can adhere to the ticketing requirements for their third-round game in this season's FA Cup - if the contest takes place at the Emirates.

Like all Premier League teams, Arsenal enter the competition at the third-round stage, which is due to be held on January 10, 2026 following the conclusion of the second round in December.

Additionally, the Gunners must comply with the ticketing rules in any further rounds of the 2025-26 FA Cup, if they avoid a third consecutive third-round exit in January.

Arteta's side also fell to Liverpool at the same stage of the 2023-24 competition, and they have failed to advance past the fourth round of the FA Cup since beating Chelsea in the 2019-20 final.

The Gunners last suffered three straight third-round FA Cup exits in the 1940s, losing to West Ham United in 1945, Chelsea in 1946 and Bradford Park Avenue in 1947.