The new Wembley hosts its first major game this weekend - but while the FA showcase their new national stadium to millions of football fans worldwide, how many are aware of the extortionate costs incurred by fans going to the big game?

A match programme will cost £10, a pint  £4.50, a burger £8. It’s blatant daylight robbery, and that’s after you've already taken out a loan to get your ticket for the Final in the first place.

Manchester United and Chelsea were each allocated 25,000 tickets, with only 4,000 of those in the lowest price band of £35. This at the end of a season where many die-hard fans would have been to nearly every home game and probably a fair few away matches as well. Factor in the two sides' cup runs, both domestically and in Europe,  and you have fans shelling out for additional games.

The FA Cup is one of football’s institutions, a magical knock-out competition that often pits part-time minnows against the big guns of the top flight in English football. Every fan will have at least one great memory of the FA Cup, whether they are a teenager or well into retirement age.

I am a big critic of the FA, although that means nothing in 2007 because almost everyone is; and for good reason, as they continually make a mockery out of English football. The whole rebuilding of Wembley has been a fiasco from the start. Then you have the issues with appointing a new national coach and their selection policy, and that's just for starters.

There are 90,000 seats at Wembley now - that’s 18,500 more than the Millennium Stadium offers for football matches, yet 40,000 tickets are going to sponsors and other organisations, or groups the FA are involved with, despite the increase over that of recent years. Many of these tickets are on the black market and trading for well above the already inflated prices set by the FA. Anyone selling the tickets stands to make a fortune, be it the FA or some geezer you've never met before but who definitely has genuine Cup Final tickets.

It is £60 or £95 for most of the FA Cup Final tickets available to fans of the teams playing. I certainly would not pay that. Don’t get me wrong, I love my team, and it would be a fabulous occasion if the Arsenal were to face Spurs in the FA Cup Final. But even then, if ticket prices are as they are in 2007 or do not drop dramatically, you will probably finding me in my local pub watching it, and not at Wembley.

Watching in a pub will cost me nothing to enter and to take a seat somewhere near the big screen, nor will it cost me nearly £13 for a drink and some food. The last time I checked it was about £1.80 a pint of Smith’s in my local and they provide food at half-time for the hungry punters engrossed in a couple of hours of football. This can amount to the consumption of several pints before, during and after a game, but I can assure you this would not cost me anywhere near £13 - or £23 if I was to buy a match programme as well.

It doesn’t cost me a fortune to get to London on a packed train, either, before battling up to Wembley and having to do the reverse to get home - taking up several hours which would be better spent in bed or the gym or in the pub. I can just walk out of the house, down the road and there I am. The only trouble I may encounter on the way is the weather or the odd dangerous driver. Overall, I think I am better off.

It makes you wonder just how much some Manchester United fans are paying for their trip to Wembley. If they have a £95 ticket, will they be taking the train from wherever to London? The cost will be increased significantly if there are children in tow - and if they haven’t got a discount on their rail ticket, they could easily find themselves parting with more than £300 for their big day out. Great if you can afford to splash out that much money on one game, but with summer round the corner and season-ticket renewals coming up, it is grossly unfair - especially if you try to make it a family day.

The FA will make enough money from the global TV audiences and big-name corporate sponsors, but they need to get back to the grass roots of the game, subsidise the fans if necessary, and not rob them blindly as they are at the moment.

Sadly, there will always be someone who wants to go to an FA Cup Final because they might never get another chance. The FA know it and exploit it, as do the clubs themselves, who also continually exploit their own fans by not dropping their season-ticket prices.

When they generate so much money from other areas of the game, clubs and the FA shouldn’t need to rip off the good people who show immense loyalty and parting with their hard-earned cash in buying tickets and merchandise. However, the mutuality of this loyalty is almost non-existent.

Do you agree that the FA Cup Final is a rip-off? Post your comments below or, better still, submit an article to Sportingo.