The FA Cup

[RussRanger]

Those were the days -- when cup final day was sacrosanct, the shopping had to be done as early as possible so as to be in for all the special programmes leading up to kick-off.
Much more exciting then -- a real calendar day.

100%

[waterbuffalo]

The League Cup should be cancelled, and there should be a 3 week winter break and no international friendlies before 10 league games have been played, all this play 2 games, and then sit around for an International break-friendlies nonsense has got to stop. Clubs are losing players 2 weeks into the season playing for their countries, wait for the players to get fitter first. the FA Cup can start in November.

[QPR1976]

And this seaon for the 1st time, the FA have, in their wisdom, decided to bring the FA Cup forward so it's played on the same day as a full Premiership Saturday ! Sat 14th May.
And not even the last Premiership weekend !!! Sun 22nd May.

[The White City General]

FA Cup -
Seeding ? No thanks.
Play during Midweek ? No, except replays. not enough SDat 3pm games as it is.
No Replay (presumably Pens) No, give smaller teams a chance of extra income.
Winners getting a place in Champions League ? YES, at least they've won something, rather than 4th in Premiership. Should encourage most teams to field strong sides as they 'could' qualify win just 6 wins. although, obviously less likely for the likes of Orient.

Another suggestion from Alan Green on R5 Live tonight was to make the highest placed team play Away ! Ridiculous. Especially if Lower placed team leapfrogs higher placed team between Draw & Cup Match. Silly idea.

Personally,keep it simple, leave it alone in the main, just rejuvenate interest by rewarding the Winners - I still miss the European Cup Winner Cup.

Agree with all that keep it simple and reward the winners with a Champions League place. There is not a team in the PL who would risk not fielding a strong team if the 'ultimate reward' was up for grabs.

Can imagine such a scheme would be met with massive opposition from half a dozen clubs in the PL but the FA should then put it to the vote of all 92 clubs really shake things up.

Commercially it could be winner, there would be great interest in the competition IMO if the prize was so rewarding.

Also the likes of the BBC/ITV should be banned from cherry picking all Premiership ties for viewing. Old derbies and giant killings should take priority when the luck of FA Cup draw serves them up.

[waterbuffalo]

Yeah, I am sick of the big 4 or big 5 who have all their games on TV and then even the FA Cup we have to see them play each other, football seems to exist only for supporters of Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, and now Man City.

[Olly]

yes but what happens when we only get three or even two CL places? The number of places a league gets, depends on how far previous clubs have gone in the preceding season/seasons (not sure whether it's one season or more). I do like the idea of it tho.

[sirpiechucker]

Really good debate.

I love the FA Cup but agree it's dying and something needs to change. First of all I'd introduce a rule which states that you can't make more than 3 changes from your previous league match. I can't understand why Blackpool and Wolves are penalised for make changes when they are playing Premiership matches but United and Arsenal are allowed to get away with picking any team they want to compete in the cups?

If you forced teams to either have to weaken their sides the match before the cup in order then to play a weaker side in the cup or make them have to pick a full strength side they'd soon have to take the competition more seriously.

The FA Cup is all about great football on Saturday at 3 o'clock and not about Monday at 7.45 or Wednesday evenings.

I'd never want the FA Cup to be one off matches. The beauty is the ability to draw at home and go to the big boys ground for the replay or to go to one of the bigger teams force a draw and then bring them back to your dodgy pitch and snatch a win. Taking that scenario out of the cup would ruin it once and for all.

Personally I'd scrap the league cup unless you could also force the teams to take that more seriously. The only way that is to happen is CL qualification or big bucks. Neither is likely to happen anytime soon. Alternatively you could force teams into picking a minimum number of British players so that it would at least have some benefit to the home nations. Problem with both competitions nowadays is so that clubs can protect their first team they fill their squads up with players which the smaller clubs can't bring in on loan or buy outright. The likes of Darren Gibson, Bebe, Obertan will probably not get another game this season and forced to play reserve football rather than that playing regularly either for a lower PL team or someone in the NPC.

[LoftusRoadLad]

All the teams in Europe will want their cup winners in the Champs League if we are allowed to. So that idea is outta the window.
There is already too many teams in the CL as it is.
Did you all know the FA Cup is the only cup in the world where tiny teams can potentially go all the way to the final, just like our league system allows part time teams to raise all the way to the premiership. Unique the world over..Again i say no change cos i would love our young QPR fans to witness a great cup final.
The best revamp i can think of is do it like the world cup. Lots of mini leagues seeded to have part-timers and big clubs and top three get to go thru to the knock outs. That would help smaller clubs generate dosh and would be interesting.

[maddix]

On a side note ...

I've never understood why Premier league teams get to play in the League (carling) cup.

Surely once the Premier was formed the football league cup competition should only be for teams in the football league.

Even now very few prem teams give it the respesct it;s due and it has been devalued in the past 10/15 years by weakened teams and the like .

Just my opinion but I think it would be a lot more exciting irrespective of who won it as long as its not the same boring 4 or 5 teams !!!

[acricketer]

The FA Cup as I knew it has gone. No money in it. It is devalued by the teams Prem teams put out which should tell us all what is obvious. It's the same with internationals; no money in them for the Prem teams and certainly no pride in the shirt.

Still, I like the old ideas with jumpers for goalposts; players riding on the bus with you to games and smoking on the terraces.