Football Federation Australia shot themselves in the foot in fine style with their ticket pricing for Saturday night’s FFA Cup final.

With no other top level sport set down for Melbourne that night, and a clash between A-League heavyweights Melbourne Victory and Perth Glory in the decider, someone at FFA headquarters botched up when they decided to set the prices higher than they are for A-League games.

An adult Premium A reserve seat at AAMI Park for an A-League game costs $56.07. For the FFA Cup final it was $80.

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The governing body obviously thinks the FFA Cup final is of greater importance and prestige.

Football analyst Craig Foster said the move to increase prices backfired.

“You can add something on, but you’ve got to respect them (the crowd) you’ve got to make sure it’s going to to be full and that it is, in fact, a showpiece event,” Foster said on SBS’ The World Game.

“It didn’t live up to what it could have in terms of the crowds, and that’s a failure.”

Let’s be real – the FFA Cup is a bauble.

Kosta Barbarouses celebrates winning the Mark Viduka Medal for the FFA Cup final’s best player. Photo: Getty

It’s a novelty, a competition that is crying out for a romantic run from a state-level side in order to capture the public’s imagination.

It’s the who-cares cup.

The ticket hike is certainly not the only factor behind the poor attendances – only 4165 people turned up to see the all A-League semi between Glory and Melbourne City.

And the ‘romance’ factor may be being overplayed as well.

Just 6575 made it to AAMI Park to watch Victory’s semi-final win over Hume City – compared to 10,521 for their quarter-final win against Adelaide United.

But the paltry 15,098 who made their way through the turnstiles at AAMI Park on Saturday night for the decider reflected the fact a ticket increase was well out of order.

“The idea of the FFA Cup has captured the imagination of the football community and there’s a huge groundswell of support,” David Gallop said when the tournament was launched in 2013.

Really? Or is it one of those ideas that sounds nice to everyone until it comes time to get off the couch and down to the game.

Surely FFA should consider setting ticket prices lower than they would be for an A-League game, at least until the competition is on its feet.

The half-empty stadium for the FFA Cup final is another blow for football in Australia, with club finances under the microscope and some teams fighting for their very survival.

The Wellington Phoenix have not been granted an extension of their initial 10-year A-League licence, two-time champions Brisbane Roar have had trouble paying their players on time and the Glory were denied a finals place last season because of salary cap rorting.

On Saturday night the league had a chance for some much-needed positivity.

But the sight of all those empty seats, for what is supposed to be a highlight of the season, has done them no favours at all.