With the details being announced for Southampton's FA Cup semi final with Leicester City, only one question remains and that is whether Saints supporters will be allowed in to Wembley to see their team in action.

The match will take place at Wembley Stadium at 6.30pm on Sunday, April 18 and it will be broadcast live on BT Sport 1 HD and BT Sport Ultimate channels, but there is still the question to be answered as to whether fans will be allowed to be present at the event.

Rumours persist that the semi finals will be used as test events for the return of supporters later in the season, but to get straight to the point, although it seems likely that the Saints semi final could well be used as a test event, it probably won't be the fans of either Saints or Leicester City who will be invited by the FA to be the guinea pigs.

The very timing of the final points towards this as with a 6.30pm kick off the game won't end till 8.30pm ish at least, if it goes past 90 minutes and to extra time and even penalties then it could be as late as 9.15pm.

This creates issues around travel with fans, even with a miniscule crowd it would take the best part of an hour from stadium to Waterloo for Saints supporters and a similar journey for Leicester fans.

Then there is the potential for disorder, the Metropolitan Police have enough on their hands at the moment, if they have two sets of opposing fans in attendance then they will have to have a big presence at the ground and in the surrounding areas.

So the rumours are that it will not be Saints supporters watching but the crowd will be made up of neutrals from the surrounding areas with perhaps NHS workers being given priority for tickets .

This makes sense from many sides of the story.

So don't hold your breath on being able to get to Wembley, indeed even the kick off time is prohibitive to both sets of supporters who perhaps harboured thoughts of popping up to Wembley and watching the game in a pub garden.

It is sad that we won't get to see Saints in an FA Cup semi final, but the current situation is what it is and it is still better to get to a semi final, even one without crowds, than not to get one at all.

Photo: Action Images

JGH added 09:25 - Mar 29 There are also the Club Wembley ticket holders who rightly or wrongly have a guaranteed allocation to every game.
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