FA CUP: Farnborough Town have been given the go-ahead to switch their fourth round tie against holders Arsenal to Highbury because of concerns over safety.

Farnborough reluctantly concluded they could not guarantee the safety of fans at their 4,100-capacity Cherrywood Road ground, with the main areas of concern being over issues such as segregation and ticketing.

The move followed a meeting yesterday afternoon between club officials and the local council, as well as police, fire and ambulance representatives and a Football Association crowd adviser.

The FA's head of communications, Paul Newman, said: "The recommendation from that meeting was that the ground is not suitable to stage a major cup tie of this nature.

"There were concerns about the facilities needed for such a game and the administration of the tie. Both clubs have been informed of the decision."

The net result is that Farnborough have effectively lost their only realistic chance of causing an upset to eclipse their third-round win at Darlington.

Sky have now turned their attentions to Gillingham's home tie with Leeds United, which will be shown at 12.30 p.m. on Saturday, January 25th. The game at Highbury is instead set to go ahead at 3.0 p.m. that day.

Farnborough will forfeit the £265,000 television fee but will share £60,000 for highlights from the BBC, as well as 50 per cent of gate receipts, which could bring them up to a further £500,000.

The Farnborough manager and chairman, Graham Westley, said: "Arsenal put it to me very nicely. They said, 'We have 38,000 fans. Are your stands up to it? Is there the potential for mass disaster on the day and can you give assurances there won't be?' In the end I think it was the only decision to make. We have to be sure people come to our ground and are safe, and we couldn't give that guarantee."

Indeed, given the immense work which would have been needed to convert their ground into a stadium capable of staging such a high-profile tie, they are probably better off financially at Highbury in any case.

The players are also relishing the chance of playing at such a famous stadium, while Arsenal are more than happy to play host to the tie and avoid the potential banana skin of a trip to Hampshire.

Two other FA Cup ties have been forced to switch to Sunday, January 26th, with Fulham against Charlton kicking off at 2.0 p.m. and Stoke facing Bournemouth or Crewe at 3.0 p.m., because QPR and Port Vale respectively are scheduled to play at home the previous day.