This was pretty much inevitable what with Newcastle being the only one of the 4 clubs having to play in the UEFA Cup on the preceding Thursday. Their tie against Man Utd will be at 2pm on the Sunday.

Both matches will be shown live on telly, but the channel(s) are yet to be decided. We think that the BBC get first pick. See below.

Man Utd had, understandably, asked for their tie to be switched to a more northerly location (we can only assume that Newcastle's failure to make the same request is due to their lesser conviction that they'll win and have to make the trip again). But the FA confirmed that both matches would be in Cardiff. "We announced Cardiff as the venue last year and it's proved very popular", lied spokesman Adrian Bevington. Yes it's a great stadium, but wasn't the tradition of choosing the semi-final venues according to who got through to them quite popular too? If it ain't broke...

Basically, the FA are just getting into practice for when they have to lie about how popular it is having both the semis at Wembley.

Rupe adds...
The Arsenal game is to be on Sky Sports 1 (so the Beeb probably did get first pick).