Football
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In it's day it was quite possibly the greatest football competition in the world. The final itself was the only game I can remember being televised live as a kid.
The day itself was magical, whoever was in the final. Glued to the tv, the first report would probably be showing the fans leaving their home base. There'd be reporters outside the teams hotels. From early morning to the game itself there would be wall to wall coverage, interspersed with FA Cup Final Question of Sport, or Quiz Ball, or something similar.
The goose bumps really started with the team coach leaving the hotel, and the cameras following it en route to Wembley. BBC and ITV vying for the biggest audience on the day.
By contrast, today we have BBC showing Saturday Kitchen Live, Homes Under The Hammer, and kick off will be Celebrity Mastermind. They aren't showing the game. ITV are showing the match, but without the build up, apart from a couple of hours prior to kick off.
Worse still is the fact that anyone with Sky Sports will almost certainly be watching the conclusion of La Liga.
So who is really to blame for this sad demise of our beloved FA CUP.
The tv companies certainly have to take some of the blame. The FA, because for a start they should never have had FA Cup semi finals, or League Play off's at Wembley. There should be very few ways a professional footballer gets to play at Wembley, and playing in the League Two play off final ain't one of them.
Then there is the Premier League, allowing teams to field weakened teams in the competition. Not to mention allowing a Club to opt out, in order to go and play in a totally meaningless competition, that has only ever been treated as an exhibition match, or the World equivalent of the Charity Shield.
I would love the FA Cup to be restored to it's former glory, but alas it would take people who actually don't care, to make the necessary changes.
The day itself was magical, whoever was in the final. Glued to the tv, the first report would probably be showing the fans leaving their home base. There'd be reporters outside the teams hotels. From early morning to the game itself there would be wall to wall coverage, interspersed with FA Cup Final Question of Sport, or Quiz Ball, or something similar.
The goose bumps really started with the team coach leaving the hotel, and the cameras following it en route to Wembley. BBC and ITV vying for the biggest audience on the day.
By contrast, today we have BBC showing Saturday Kitchen Live, Homes Under The Hammer, and kick off will be Celebrity Mastermind. They aren't showing the game. ITV are showing the match, but without the build up, apart from a couple of hours prior to kick off.
Worse still is the fact that anyone with Sky Sports will almost certainly be watching the conclusion of La Liga.
So who is really to blame for this sad demise of our beloved FA CUP.
The tv companies certainly have to take some of the blame. The FA, because for a start they should never have had FA Cup semi finals, or League Play off's at Wembley. There should be very few ways a professional footballer gets to play at Wembley, and playing in the League Two play off final ain't one of them.
Then there is the Premier League, allowing teams to field weakened teams in the competition. Not to mention allowing a Club to opt out, in order to go and play in a totally meaningless competition, that has only ever been treated as an exhibition match, or the World equivalent of the Charity Shield.
I would love the FA Cup to be restored to it's former glory, but alas it would take people who actually don't care, to make the necessary changes.
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Agree with everything you've said here.
I know we tend to look back through rose-tinted glasses but it is very sad. Can't see it ever coming back anywhere near to what it was. And you're dead right about playing the semi's and gawd knows what else at Wembley.  And don't get me started on the 5.00 pm KO.  |
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Agreed. Used to love it as a kid seeing the players on the morning of the game. I haven't decided which game to watch today which a sad indictment of its stature.
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You summed it up in your first sentence. It was at its biggest when football on TV was relatively rare. Lots of other factors have eroded its prestige as well, but older generations love of football was formed by big FA cup moments. For me it was Houchen'svdiving header and Whiteside's curler.
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yep, 30 years ago it this time of the year was a treat as you would have the FA cup final (live) followed by the European cup final in the midweek (live) and then the England v Scotland game (live) a week later
3 live games in a week - an absolute treat - you'd be in 7th heaven if there was an FA cup final replay ! |
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football sold its soul to sky
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champions league doesn't help.
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nothing is to blame, just progression.
the league is worth over £50m to worst club, the champions league is worth £40m to a group player. No point throwing money at the fa cup, it is still good for distributing cash to real lower league clubs |
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they discarded every tradition,wouldnt dream of going to a semi at wembley and the 5pm kick off is real off putting for anyone not close to london
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is it progression though ?
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the 5pm kick off is real off putting for anyone not close to london
is it really ? Are you telling me that if Newcastle got to the FA cup final then there wouldn't be at least 200,000 Newcastle fans who would want tickets even if the game kicked off a 2 o'clock in the morning ? If Everton played in a Europa semi final in Germany on a Thursday night next season we'd sell 30000 tickets People go to concerts that finish at midnight and travel hundreds of miles - I doubt a 5.00 ko would put one person off |
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might be an age thing then,how old are you toffee?
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Great post efisio..i agree with every word .Sky the main culprits here.I will be watching the rugby league and recording the La Liga match.Couldn't give a to$$ about the cup final.
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The demise is straightforward it is:
100% due increase in live broadcasting of televised domestic matches. Hard to believe but the odd live domestic match here and there has been broadcast since the 50's. There was significant change in the 80's when ITV was showing league matches more regular and the step change was in 1992 when Sky acquired the rights to broadcast live fixtures from the newly formed Premier League. Around the same time Channel 4 started broadcasting Italian Serie A football. I can't remember what Sky were broadcasting 1989-92 but probably Italian or Spanish football. The FA Cup's fate was sealed when BBC stopped devoting Grandstand for the whole day and the tradition of the FA Cup was lost. Families started doing other things on a Saturday hence why it now a 5pm kick-off and clashing head-on with the Spanish La Liga title decider. Any neutral fan watching football weighing up Arsenal vs. Hull FA Cuo Final or Barcelona vs. Athletico Madrid title decider, err... which one to watch that's a hard one. Same thing has happened Golf think of the frenzied excitement of the Ryder Cup in the 80's every two years, half the country seemed to be watching it. Once it disappeared off domestic TV and became part of Sky's constant live golf broadcasting the magic disappeared. Even the Grand National viewing figures in the UK is disappearing down the toilet since it switched from the BBC. |
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the fa should have fought for every tradition,of course sky want/wanted prime time,but theyve killed the comp'(for me anyway)
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if sky had just mimicked all the build up that we used to have,it would have been a big carrot to a lot of people to sign up-and we'd still have an fa cup with a lot of the magic intact
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being able to watch any game on the planet hasnt helped, just take today.
barca or hull |
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might be an age thing then,how old are you toffee?
I'm 45 - I went to the Ukraine for a game 6 years ago on a Thursday night, there and back in a day, landing at 5.00 Friday morning We went to an FA cup semi final at Wembley for a sunday 4.00 kick off a few years ago - you either want to go to a game or not - it makes me laugh when the papers always carry stories about people not being able to make the last train |
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fa cup, and showjumping both popular because it was free on tv
and nothing to compete most weeks we were lucky if we got second half commentary on the radio of some european match, with program starting on radio 2 at 2 minutes past 8 signal used to drift too, so there would often be some foreign station with singing overlapping the broadcast easy to see why sky is so popular |
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Easy issue to address. All the cup final winners from the various leagues in europe play off in a knockout competition for a champions league place for the following season.
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Premier League is entirely to blame. It is the be-all and end-all. The greed of the big few has meant that everyone else has suffered, football is more unequal than it has ever been and more dull.
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Premier League, Champions League and the glut of money in football to blame.
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i think its Moyes fault
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well i'd like to blame jose
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throw that fckr drogba in too
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giggs cant be blameless
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they need to put the winners in the champions league,it`s the only way to restore the magic
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wont be very magical for the cl tho eh?
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The FA cup should have nothing to do with the champions league. The FA Cup will hopefully be going long after the PL / CL disappears up it's own rse
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Great post from the OP.
Seen on another thread that even some Arsenal fans are going to watch the Barca game instead which says it all really. No one cares about the cup these days unless you're a lower league side drawing one of the top 6 prem sides. |
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Says more about Arsenal fans or at least those in particular if they're watching La Liga.
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correct Darlo - says nothing about the FA Cup, everything about those particular fans.
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man utd to blame -end of
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has anybody heard of a hotel?
ive travelled up and down the country going to gigs that finish at 1am. if you cant get your arse to wembley for a cup final for a club youve supposedly supported all your life theres summat wrong with you |
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the cup hasnt lost anything for fans, if you arent even watching it you arent a fan. simple as that. its lost meaning for neutrals, simply bcause the meaning it had to those was false anyway. you could say the same about the boat race. go back to the 80s and the entire country would sit around glued to it like it was the biggest event of the year. or the worlds strongest man cobblers. geoff capes was a legend, who has won it the last 10 years? no idea. nobody has a clue and nobody gives a crap. just a case of there werent many tv channels back then, everybody watched the same things so they seemed more special than they actually were.
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toffee87 17 May 14 11:09
I'm 45 - I went to the Ukraine for a game 6 years ago on a Thursday night, there and back in a day, landing at 5.00 Friday morning I was at the same game and was back in work for 9.00am Friday! |
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tommo0001 wrote:
they need to put the winners in the champions league,it`s the only way to restore the magic Yep, Pompy and Wigan parking the bus against Barca and co. |
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were you guys really drooling over jimmy melia in a helicopter?
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More is sometimes less. The fact that we have the choice today to watch all these sports at the same time is actually the problem. There is nothing wrong with the final itself and plenty have gone from Hull and were really looking forward to the day.
Biggest game in English football is next week in the Championship play off( I'm a QPR supporter living in Hull) When ESPN had the final they did do a full day and tried to bring some fun back. It needs to back on BBC at 3pm and we need to avoid the clashes that we have today with other sports |