When Liverpool's ball was drawn out of the hat to face Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final before the Reds had even played their quarter-final tie against Nottingham Forest last Sunday, few would have expected to have had to wait until the following Friday to find out when the blockbuster fixture would actually be played.
But that should tell you everything that you need to know about the value that is placed on the supporters who still make the historic competition what it is today - despite a catalogue of poor decisions continuing to undermine it.
Once the jewel in the crown of the English football calendar, a series of adjustments continue to inconvenience the loyal supporter. Whether its moving the cup final time to 5.30pm, scrapping replays, making draws before scheduled ties have been played or deciding that the award of reaching Wembley stadium should actually be granted before two teams even reach the final, there is seemingly no end to the disregard for the very people who make the game of football what it is.
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After days of lobbying and behind-the-scenes discussions, it turns out that National Rail's long-planned Bank Holiday rail maintenance works ARE actually a big problem for supporters travelling to the capital from the North West's two major cities. Sorry about that.
Despite the logical reasoning that a game played between two clubs who are based only 36 miles apart from each other could maybe be played somewhere a little nearer to home, avoiding a logistical nightmare and a full day spent on motorways, there was not a cat in hell's chance of this fixture being moved away from Wembley stadium.
The revenue received from hosting semi-final ties at the national stadium is too lucrative to pass off just for the inconvenience of the average supporter.
UEFA knows this too. When a Lionel Messi-inspired Barcelona beat Manchester United in the Champions League Final at Wembley back in 2011 it was the highest grossing final of all time. No wonder they couldn't get back there quick enough to stage another one two years later.
With a direct train route simply not an option. The solution is to lay on 100 free buses from Anfield and the Etihad, catering for the needs of around 5,000 supporters heading to a stadium with a capacity of 90,000.
Making the coaches free of charge may seem like a nice gesture from the FA, but the reality is that it is nothing more than a transparent sweetener designed to offer at least some sort of appeasement to fans. It won't take a qualified accountant to figure out that the cost of laying on 100 well-used buses is small change compared to the lost revenue of moving the final away from Wembley.
The governing body is no doubt expecting a little bit of bad press from the whole ordeal but that is nothing that it shouldn't be able to shake off, safe in the the knowledge that come matchday the national stadium will be full to the rafters regardless of how difficult it was for supporters in the north to get there or get back.
The wider disregard for the best interests of modern match-going football supporters will ultimately not detract significantly from what will be a month of pure excitement and nerves for the followers of Liverpool and Manchester City, but if this farcical situation has taught us anything this week then it is that there is still a long way to go to reprioritise supporter interests over shareholders and the mobilisation of change will simply have to be driven by clubs and their loyal followings themselves if anything is to ever realistically change for the better.
Right now the prospect of a classic cup semi-final at Villa Park seems like a fantasy. Instead, a snaking fume cloud convoy will have to block up the already rammed Bank Holiday motorways all day while supporters entertain themselves onboard dry buses with nothing more than a bottle of pop and a tube of Pringles.
