FA Cup Revamp

[Power to people]

I see that the wonderful FA are considering "Revamping" the FA Cup, they want to move the final to a 5.30 KO for TV, scrap replays, bigger teams will get seeded

Do they actually consider what supporters want ?

The smaller clubs get extra revenue from replays, why seed the bigger teams, surely that would mean less chance of a minnow pulling a premiership team and getting a big pay day, all the big clubs that would play each other would be shown on TV not the smaller clubs, typical FA though all because the bigger teams are not interested in the cup so play weakened teams and moan about having to fit in a replay around their european games

[Samdy Gray]

No, it actually means smaller clubs have a greater chance of drawing a bigger team in the 3rd round because they'll be unable to draw each other e.g. Man Utd vs. Liverpool this year.

[BANGKOK RED]

Seeded teams don't play each other. That's the whole point p2p.

This is the first I've heard of this, but it sounds goo to me.

[shady]

I heard that this year's FA Cup Final is being played the same day as a full Premier League programme (minus the fixtures involving Wembley participants of course). Totally degrading it further than ever before. To think it was such a special occasion when I was growing up in the '80s. Couldn't give a toss these days.

[Power to people]

No, it actually means smaller clubs have a greater chance of drawing a bigger team in the 3rd round because they'll be unable to draw each other e.g. Man Utd vs. Liverpool this year.

Ahh right didn't realise I took it the other way, not a bad idea then, still don't like the idea of no replays though

Bangkok it was in a lot of the uk sunday papers

[Samdy Gray]

The passion for the FA Cup still exists in the lower leagues. Just look how much it means to League One and League Two clubs to get to the 3rd or 4th round.

The problem is that PL teams, along with their supporters, don't give a toss about the FA Cup. Ok they might get interested if they're still in it in the later stages, but the PL and Champions League mean much more to them financially.

I watched Sunday Supplement on Sky Sports yesterday and Henry Winter spoke very well about how the FA Cup needs to be revamped.

Scrapping replays would definitely be a good thing. Fixture lists are already too congested, especially for PL teams.

There's also an argument for moving FA Cup to midweek. You just need to look at the relative success the League Cup has had with that. Also, nobody complains about the Champions League being midweek and that's supposedly the best competition in the world.

Seeding I think would benefit clubs throughout the league. Lower teams get a better chance of drawing a big club in earlier rounds and PL teams avoid each other which gives them a better chance of progressing further and a better chance of winning it.

Another idea that I'm in favour of is, regardless of how the PL team is drawn in the first round they enter (i.e. 3rd round), they should always play away. An example Winter gave was in the German and Greek leagues where you get teams like Bayern and Olympiakos turning up at pokey little stadiums. Ok, your £100k a week players aren't going to like turning out at these grounds with shit pitches and awful facilities, but for me that would definitely add some spice to the competition and better potential for upsets - which is what cup competitions are all about.

[Fred Elliot]

Bangkok it was in a lot of the uk sunday papers

I think the secrets in the name 

[london_red]

Anything which decreases the all PL ties and gives the lower league sides a chance of a giant-killing draw has got to be a good thing surely.

Won't affect us anyway when we inevitably get knocked out by someone like Tamworth in the 1st round next season 

[Spencer_White]

The passion for the FA Cup still exists in the lower leagues. Just look how much it means to League One and League Two clubs to get to the 3rd or 4th round.

The problem is that PL teams, along with their supporters, don't give a toss about the FA Cup. Ok they might get interested if they're still in it in the later stages, but the PL and Champions League mean much more to them financially.

I watched Sunday Supplement on Sky Sports yesterday and Henry Winter spoke very well about how the FA Cup needs to be revamped.

Scrapping replays would definitely be a good thing. Fixture lists are already too congested, especially for PL teams.

There's also an argument for moving FA Cup to midweek. You just need to look at the relative success the League Cup has had with that. Also, nobody complains about the Champions League being midweek and that's supposedly the best competition in the world.

Seeding I think would benefit clubs throughout the league. Lower teams get a better chance of drawing a big club in earlier rounds and PL teams avoid each other which gives them a better chance of progressing further and a better chance of winning it.

Another idea that I'm in favour of is, regardless of how the PL team is drawn in the first round they enter (i.e. 3rd round), they should always play away. An example Winter gave was in the German and Greek leagues where you get teams like Bayern and Olympiakos turning up at pokey little stadiums. Ok, your £100k a week players aren't going to like turning out at these grounds with shit pitches and awful facilities, but for me that would definitely add some spice to the competition and better potential for upsets - which is what cup competitions are all about.

There is a problem with teams at the bottom of the Premier League not being interested in the Premier League. But I rekon the top half are all very interested in the FA Cup. Wenger would kill for an FA Cup now.

Id say its the other way round. The lower league teams are the uninterested ones (unless they draw a PL side). Our FA cup games this season drew about the same level of interest as the JPT games.

The reason the FA Cup is has fallen so badly is because there is such a massive differential in finance between the top and bottom of the football league pyramid. If they want the FA Cup back to what it was they'll have to sort out football first.

[Summerof69]

I've said it before, all they have to do to give the FA Cup more prominance is give it one of the automatic Champions League spots. At the end of the day it's up to the FA who gets them, and I would rather reward a team that actually wins a trophy.

But the problem remains European football. Over the last ten years they've reduced the teams (down from 22) in the league, made the League Cup one off ties (yet PL clubs still don't play their first teams) and after reducing the FA Cup to only one replay, they are planning to water it down again, yet there is more game in the Europa League/ Champions League. Change that back to only two legged ties, with only a maximum of two teams qualifying per country, that'll make it more interesting.

It won't happen though.

[Simon Pieman]

I think part of the problem is also the quality of the games on itv. They only seem to market the 'big cup upset' and always want to show some team down the pecking order team vs a 'giant of the football league' just in case they do knock them out. ESPN showed better games this year.

[Spencer_White]

People forget that there are other reasons why the Cup isnt what it was from a Lower League Club's perspective (as opposed to the perspective of top flight clubs which we hear about all the time in the media).

Up until the 1960's the Football League had only 1 promotion and relegation place in each league. That resulted in a huge amount of dead games in the League, no match for the excitement of the Cup. Promotion places increased to 3 up 3 down, but there was still a huge amount of dead games later in the season until the Play Offs arrived in the early 90s. Up until the mid 60s a lot of 3rd division teams (like Town) had never been promoted or relegated. For the top teams European club football was just comming into it, and the League Cup started in the mid 60s? They all stole the Cups Thunder in terms of capturing the publics imagination.

Then in the late 1980's we were banned from Europe. For the top clubs it was a denial of a huge revenue, that combined with Football Hooliganism massively reduced the profitability of top flight clubs and made the Cup a much more level competition. Thats not going to happen again either.