How to restore the romance of the FA Cup

Possible shock on the cards in the Man U / Swansea match

On the other hand, Swansea may win

An all premier clash with the top side at home, its complete tosh imo.

Every club in England and Wales (premiership to pub teams) all in the hat.

eg Red Lion Pub (Birmingham) vs Man Utd ( to be played on the local rec 10.30 sunday morning before the pubs open)

If you watched Football Focus on BBC1 this morning/afternoon you couldn't help but be rooting for Macclesfield Town today.

They're totally broke and are being held together by fresh air - and the dedication of some people who love the club.

I was delighted when they scored their equaliser late on in the match, so they're at least going to make a few quid in the replay with Sheffield Wednesday.

Hope they win it and get the 67k they most definitely need if they progress to the fourth round.

There's still a bit of romance left in the FA Cup.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25531660

it's the only chance now for many clubs to make any money, poor Hereford to be wound up soon and look at all the memories they have given us in this tournament

Aye, BB.

It really is a 'funny old game' - these days more than ever.

The difference in money between the top and the bottom has never been greater, and it doesn't bode well at all for the future of football.

you're right !

Excellent, Emden!!

you're right !

First thing is get rid of the old league cup or at least kick out Premiership sides.
Champions league place for the winners.

I hardly watch football now in fact probably see 6 live games a season on sky.
All the talk about clubs going bust and how bad it is now though I cannot agree with. I live in Hull and they nearly went bust in the 80s and are now in the Premiership.

As for the live games I remeber how exciting it was for the 1 game on BBC Friday night or ITV Saturday afternoon, but are we really saying that having more choice to watch a game 3 live FA Cup games tomorrow is worse than having one? Or uis it nostalgia again?

Sorry ITV Sunday afternoon nearly always Liverpool,Arsenal,ManUtd,Everton or Spurs

If a team wins it outside the top 4 they have place in champions league or gain promotion

If a team wins it and their in the relegation zone they can still stay in the same division

Make it a proper cup comp, from the start.  Any FA registered team can enter.  No prelims, no saving the prem teams till the third round.  But, say ten thousand teams enter and it is a straightforward draw, so your local team could meet Man U in the first round.  Man U would of course be entitled to play as weak a team as they feel fit.  Would also mean some small teams would end up with some hefty travel expenses, but it is up to them,

Stop playing the semi-finals at Wembley. Completely devalues the act of playing the final there. All so the FA can line their pockets without a cut going to a neutral host club.

rob_dylan, meet Emden (yesterday at 20.56).

Oh right, well said emden.

Sack lambert for a start. No semis at wembley. Oh and the main one, sky has ruined football.

*they're





MY BAD

more candles

call it AF Cup

doc teams league  points that field deliberately weakened sides. reduce champions league spot to actual winner. no Europa league.

Have it seeded so the top teams play the lowest ranked all the way through

£10 tickets for all games and a Champions League place.

Get a new sponsor - Mills & Boon

Genuine question - what is stopping the Winners of the FA Cup getting a Champions League place?

I may be wrong, but surely the vote would be roughly about 994 FOR v 6 AGAINST

Award the winner 4 league points if they come from the Premier League.

Championship team who gets furthest 5 points.

Or something like that.

CL spot is ridiculous.

5 mins of searching have thrown up a couple of reasons:

- The Premier League currently own 4th Champions Lge slot, awarding it to 4th Place in the Lge.
Why would they give it away to the Football Association?

- A few resulting years of (e.g.) Aston Villa, Newcastle, Wigan, Coventry, etc. winning the FA Cup
and then getting knocked out the Ch.Lge at one of the earlier stages, would result in UEFA reducing
England's slots from 4 to 3. All football authorities in England would want to keep 4 for ever,
so obviously play the 4 best teams.

1. Why should a team get league points for winning a knockout tournament?
2. If a relegated team wins the cup and is allowed to stay up, what happens to the third team that wins promotion from the next league down?

Some really well thought-out ideas on this thread 

semis not at Wembley, Champs league spots for first 2 in league and fa cup winners, cut no. live games

Re- introduce the Cup Winners Cup - Winner gets a place in Champions League following year

Finalists would be allowed to buy any player outside the transfer windows

Totally agree about the 30 minute halves. Been saying it for years. I'm sure the TV companies would prefer it too since they could run adverts every time there's a throw-in!

Jan 4, 2014 -- 8:14PM, pumphol. wrote:

Went to a third of fourth replay in the 80's between Arsenal & Sheff Wed at Highbury & it was full

Actually was played at a neutral ground being Filbert Street  http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk/soccer-fa-cup-third-round-second-replay-ars...

Link didn't work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSoBcnFk1Os

why did everyone wear a hat/cap in those days?

Not sure if someone has mentioned something like this :

FA CUP winnder gets 6 points
Losing Finalist gets 4 points
Lost Semi Finalits get 2 points.

These points added to whichever league they happen to be playing in.

Could mean the difference between going up or down, getting into the playofs, Europe or winning the league.

helissio............u cant do something like that............i would give the winners and runners up a champ league placing.......i would expand teh champs league.......top 4 plus two cup finalists.......if top 4 in cup final then give league 5th and 6th.....get rid of europa league and league cup.

helissio, if a relegated team wins the cup and stays up as a result, what happens to the third team that wins promotion from the next league down?

just wind the clock back to when the European Cup was for CHAMPIONS and not money grabbers

And get rid of the ridiculous Super Cup where the Champions League winners play the winners of the Champions League Plate competition.

miners football clubs.... working man's retreat at the weekend.... Owned by shareholders and billionaires. Stop going for a year. Stop buying TV subscriptions for a year. Return football to the fans. We might not have balletic football but it would belong to the fans.
Dump sponsors. MUD. MUD. splendiforous pitches are for ballet dancers.

mle4me     06 Jan 14 18:28 
Actually was played at a neutral ground being Filbert Street  http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk/soccer-fa-cup-third-round-second-replay-arsenal-v-sheffield-wed...



Just looked it up, took 5 games, seems I went to the first replay the 1-1 draw, not sure why I even went as I don't support either team, though back then I often went to games in London to see a match.

misterbadger

helissio, if a relegated team wins the cup and stays up as a result, what happens to the third team that wins promotion from the next league down?

Team that stays up changes position with the team thats one place above the relagation zone.

Champion's League place would be the final nail in it  IMO

The players probably wouldn't even bother to go up and collect The Cup itself , it would be worthless , the whole thing just a qualifying competition . All the media would talk about from January on would 'champions league place! , and the moment the last team that needed a place went out in the semis all interest in the thing would drain away instantly.

Would the runners up get the place if the winners didn;t need it ? . What a farce that would be with the losers celebrating qualifying while the winners were like so what . Last season Wigan v Millwall would have been a play off for the Champion's League and that would have settled it , with the final afterwards just being a footnote .

Make it a proper cup comp, from the start.  Any FA registered team can enter.  No prelims, no saving the prem teams till the third round.  But, say ten thousand teams enter and it is a straightforward draw, so your local team could meet Man U in the first round.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Teams from various levels are exempt until Prelim Rd/1st Qualy/2nd Qualy/4th Qualy/1st Proper/3rd Proper

So a non-league team from (say) Southern Lg S&W plays in the Prelim Round, missing out the extra prelim - if they go through they'll have a chance of playing (say) Weymouth in the next round - that might not seem a big deal, but it would be to a club from non-league step 4

If they win that they've a chance of playing a team from Conference South - and probably an even better chance of playing such a team if they win again - and so it goes on; the further your team goes in the competition, the higher the standard of teams in it. 

In order to earn the right to play a team in the Prem, you'd need to win through several rounds (or be exempt until the 3rd) which means that a tie against, say, Chelsea has to be earned which wouldn't be the case in an all-in from the start draw.

Leave that part of the FA Cup alone.

I'd agree with moving the semis away from Wembley.

both teams start with 14 players BUT each manager has an AK47 with 3 bullets and exemption from prosecution

both teams start with 14 players BUT they can have up to 5 baboons each, the baboons may handle but CANNOT CARRY the ball

The biggest game and usually one of the best games of the season is the Championship Play Off Final which we never used to have so just enjoy that.
Though I do think getting rid of the League cup would help FA Cup a lot as it would then be the only chance of lower sides meeting Prem clubs.

I mean who is really bothered about this weeks semis? Three really poor sides and Sunderland.

Champs lge place for the winner only thing that will help imo. Ino its not ideal having wigan in champs lge but it most likly wudnt happen if top 4 put best sides out

the set up of the FA cup is all wrong , hence the ridiculous scnario of Man Utd playing Crawley ffs

pray tell, what had Crawley done to earn the right to play at Old Trafford that early on ?

the premier legaue teams should not be playing as early as the 3rd round ,creates too many non games

Championship clubs should be entered at 4th round stage

EPL clubs at round 6

you could even make a case for the UCL clubs to only come in at the last knockings to maybe play the remaining 4 left in the competition

Doesn't take a great brain to work it out either tbf 

well your suggestion coach just destroys it even more imo. For clubs like Crawley that is the dream they live for and the finances that can secure them for years. I remember when we drew Man Utd it made us £1 million when in the conference, that paid our teams wages for about 3 seasons and enabled us to invest in a new stadium.

Burton- fair point in theory ,but the practise is for clubs like Crawley it's a 1 in 200 chance draw ,not enough to secure any sort of logical long term financing . Whats more ,it's lopsided and based too much on chance .

If PL clubs came in late on then it would give more gravitas to the competition .

Nowadys PL clubs see the competition as a p1ss take  - not good for minnows or bigger clubs alike .

Seeding is also required , it  elimates such consequences as Spurs crashing out of the club at the first hurdle .

That can't be good if the minnows want to have a chance of playing at WHL  later on etc

as an additional note ,i would like to see some form of regionalisation so we get ties such as

Chelmsford v Colchester
Gillingham v Dover
Crawley v Brighton
Portsmouth v Havant / Water'ville
Exeter v Tiverton etc

low travel costs and greater interest all round

It would be even more of a pisstake with your proposal imo, Coach. They obviously changed the League Cup to allow teams in Europe to enter later - I don't think any of the big boys have taken that competition any more seriously since. Scrapping that might make teams take the FA Cup more seriously since they'd have one less chance of silverware.

Weirdly, the Spanish Cup appears to have gained importance in recent years, having been considered little more than a distraction previously.

the pre round 1 games are regionalised coach, to benefit the smaller clubs who cannot afford to travel far. You're just handing the competition on a plate to the bigger clubs.

i'm basing what i propose on the Champions league .

I can remmber the old European cup ,and it was on its last legs - no thelped because few 'big' teams entered ,it was generally littered with teams few people could pronounce let alone heard of .

You got ridiculous scores such as 11-0 and teams from Sweden getting to the final

Farcical ,even though it did occasional produce the odd classic such as Liverpool v St Ettiene in 1977

It is a much classier competition these days - the cream of the crop .

Lets be serious ,in 2014  who of any age switches on to watch Panathanaikos v Lille when Barcelona v PSG is on the other channel ?

my sentiments are, let the best team win - Sadly  the best team tends to be the big ,wealthier club .


the answer to the problem ?  maybe restrict money within the game - but that's a fairyland idea  . Not many would switch on to a Burnley v Brighton final so financing companies would shy away from any such ideas of levelling the playing field

Mickael - i believe the league cup is a cup too many

Coachbuster     07 Jan 14 18:37 

Championship clubs should be entered at 4th round stage

EPL clubs at round 6



Coach with all due respect can you explain to me how that works, round 6 is the quarter finals, so where do the 20 Premier league teams fit in

Assuming you mean round six would be last 32 clubs inc premier teams that means round one consists of around 1000 teams

My cup runneth over at the prospect.

pumpy 

1000 teams is fine and dandy  in my book 

There have been a handful of decent ideas on here but, let's face it, the FA Cup's had it.

The wonderful, rose-tinted days are gone forever. It's still pretty good for the small clubs

hoping for a nice pay day against a giant but that's about it.

Far too much footy on TV, far too much money being sloshed about between the few

and nowhere near enough for the many. Football in general's lost a load of its magic

but that's "progress".

fotball sold its soul 20 years ago and its getting worse...............classic example = UEFA decision to have 24 teams in european championships................

might even give Scotland a chance of qualifying...

only 24 teams MMM

i can see europea league being scrapped and all in for the champs league............it will render the group stage irrelevant...............i wouldnt be against this move though...........no point in having a pointless comp such as europa league and it will mean more money for teams who win FA cup and finish 5-7th in league..............this will make for more teams having chance of winning domestic league.

Record all games in black and white
Make players wear big heavy boots
All spectators MUST wear a hat
Pitches must be 50 percent mud
Deport all foreign players, and any good english ones.

How good was it?  Not sure it was that 'good.  Why was it romantic?  Giant killings?  You still get those?  It still means a lot to the Non league and lower division clubs.

Apart from England v Scotland live, and the European Cup final, the FA cup final was just about the only live football, we had.  It was a big occasion because it was rare.

It is just that it has been completely usurped in significance by the Premiership, Championship promotion race and the Champions League. 

It is like saying would you still prefer an orange and a handful of nuts for Christmas or an iPad.

You cant eat an ipad

true…

.am currently trying to get a wifi signal up on my tangerine - just to prove some point...

The FA/Sky/BT to underwrite ALL debts to the finalists....


Then you will see the players/managers/chairmen "turning up" for the games.

pumphol.     08 Jan 14 10:10 
You cant eat an ipad


Apologies, you should never use the word can't on a forum

.
http://paulandsarah.org/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=3265&g2_serialNumber=2

Helissio 06 Jan 14 18:55 Joined: 06 Jan 02 | Topic/replies: 2,289 | Blogger: Helissio's blog
Not sure if someone has mentioned something like this :

FA CUP winnder gets 6 points
Losing Finalist gets 4 points
Lost Semi Finalits get 2 points.

These points added to whichever league they happen to be playing in.

Could mean the difference between going up or down, getting into the playofs, Europe or winning the league.


Best idea on here.

^^^^ because it gets degrading when even the league 1 clubs start resting players.

I can't be arsed reading other people's opinions, I'll just post some stuff and hope it's not on here already.

Separate the UK into it's counties, and let all teams play until they get a county champion.

The they all play each other to find a northern champ, a southern champ, a midlands champ and a scottish champ.

The final gets played over 2 matches, in the county grounds of the finalists.

Lay all teams from Ilford, Romford, Dagenham, Rebridge, Rush Green, Becontree Heath etc as they don't come from Essex any more,  they come under London, and have no chance against Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, West Ham etc

And that will stop any two London clubs playing a final
also Man City v Man Utd
Liverpool v Everton
and Carlisle v Kendal

it's worked fine for over 100 years (apart from the Man Utd debacle) leave it be

A few random thoughts-

1.  Keep the open, random draw without any interference.

2.  Sort out the scheduling - 2/3 days after a hectic Christmas is ridiculous and leads to even more weakened teams.

3.  Abolish replays.  Ideally it would be nice to keep them but the pressure on the schedule deters teams from wanting to progress.

4.  Incentivise success - Massively increase the prize money to make it genuinely worthwhile to do well in.  I can see the attractions of a Champions League place but not sure it's right as it devalues the cup and wouldn't be entirely practical eg do runners up get the place if the winners qualify through the league?


5.  Restrict all ties to Saturday or Sunday with the draw the following Monday.

6.  Move the semi finals away from Wembley.

7.  Clubs to include cup games in season ticket package so fans don't have to fork out again just after Christmas - at least for the first round.

8.  Sort out the television coverage with more familiar kick off slots - it's stupid that there's no live game today and match of the day is later than usual.

9.  Ensure the final is always played after the conclusion of the Premier League.

1. yes
2. no, 3rd round always been first Sat of January
3. no, many lower league clubs make their money by battling for a replay
4. prize money has increased at earlier rounds, this is a FA competition and they say they can't afford it
5. yes
6. yes
7. yes this always used to be the way pre Premier League days
8. yes
9. yes

2 - agree but they should have played one less round of premier league fixtures in the lead up.

4 - maybe they could afford it if they'd managed to find a sponsor.  Anyway a strong cup competition is in everyone's interest and there's so much money in the game I'm sure they could find a way to up the kitty.

Give team knives and machetes.

Only one stab and slash allowed, go over that and you get a yellow card.

Kill somebody and you get sent off.

Have an FA Cup-themed quiz show

No , here's what you do to start (from an old boy of 54!!)

1/ All 3rd round games to play at 3pm on Saturday and TV, for once, work around that.

2/ Semi-finals away from Wembley

3/ FA Cup draws on Monday lunchtimes at 1pn ON THE RADIO ONLY.

Just because we can do it different doesn't mean we have to...the fun of that FA Cup draw at 1pm on Monday! Once, at my very strict grammar school in the early 1970's someone brought a tiny transistor in just so we could hear the draw. It was right at the end of the lunch-hour and when a master found us in the cloakroom listening we thought we were in big trouble..but the teacher sat down with us to listen to the draw himself. Christ, we loved him for that!

I can also remember the general excitement when, in the early 1970's due to the power shortages, West Ham played against Hereford on a Monday afternoon in the FA Cup. A couple of boys bunked off to go and joined the 42,000 capacity crowd at Upton Park.

Life has almost no fu**ing romance or soul to it now...

Looks like the FA took my suggestion on board.

Palace are staging a special candlelit game for this evening

Field a player called Romeo in your team.

Let Scottish teams in like Hearts

Wimbledon keeping the romance alive. WH are woeful.

When penalty kicks are awarded they should be taken from the half way line with no goalkeeper.

Well I have watched Millwall v Everton and Wimbledon v West Ham today on TV

and it had all the romance it ever had, both giant killing results.


In the past we only had League Championships and the FA Cup


Today we still have these along with the EUFA Championships League, The Europa Cup and The Carabao cup

so it no longer has quite the importance it once had.

But people will still pay to watch it live and Sky and BT will pay for it for their sports channels.

We can afford to keep it.

It brings money into the game.

just my own opinion

Back in the day, the Giant killers were beating top teams who fielded their best players and the FA Cup was a highly prestigious trophy which all the British players wanted to win. Not exactly giant killing beating teams playing their reserve players, mostly foreigners that don`t appreciate the history of the Cup.

All that counts now is Money, Money, Money. Staying in the Premier League or getting promoted to it and qualifying for Europe. Sky have ruined football in this country.

I hope Doncaster Rovers win it

THE WORLD USED TO STOP ON CUP FINAL DAY EVERYONE USED TO WATCH IT .I USED TO LOVE GOING TO THE DIFFERENT GROUNDS TO SEE THE SEMI FINALS WITH UTD.AND THEN THE BIG GAME THE FINAL AT WEMBLY .ITS NOT THE SAME ITS JUST ANOTHER GAME THESE DAYS THE PRESTIGE OF THE F A CUP MEANS NOTHING TO WHAT IT USED TO BE .

themightymac
26 Jan 19 23:25
Joined: 05 Apr 02 | Topic/replies: 24,119 | Blogger: themightymac's blog
I hope Doncaster Rovers win it

There are dreams and their is fantasy mm

Still if they are still in fantasize away

The Champions League place for the FA Cup Winners will never ever be considered, never mind tabled (with competitions as they stand currently)

The English FA have 4 guaranteed Champions League places with UEFA. This is very profitable.
They earn a high coefficient rating with 4 teams doing well and this will only be maintained with the 4 best teams in England.

To jeopardise this rating with a Wigan Ath, Portsmouth, Aston Villa etc. FA Cup winner joining the 3 best teams, in the Ch.Lge, would be risky and stupid.
The worst thing would be to drop the coefficient and England would then risk only getting 3 places.

Making the FA Cup a Champion's League qualifier would diminish it further, as the cup itself would be almost an afterthought. With the excitement of qualifying for the CL the players might forget to go up and collect it.

England should have 7 teams in the CL anyway, which could be achieved by simply abolishing the most pointless competition in Sports - the Europa League - and having all Euro qualified teams in one competition.