FA Cup got a Future?

**spireitematt** · 25-01-2015, 19:10

Right after a thrilling weekend in the FA Cup its been very interesting to see what people think and say about the cup. A lot of Premier League fans are saying that the competition is outdated and irrelevant and should be scrapped and other fans are saying it should be all Premier League and the winner should get a Champions League spot.

Imo The FA Cup is the biggest and best cup in English football and Premier League teams treat it with disrespect and foreign managers don't understand the history of it because they are focused are keeping a team in the Premier League or aiming for the top 4 to get into Europe.

Listen to this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02hldh5

theo_luddite · 26-01-2015, 11:40

Fewer than 6000 in Blackburn seem to think it has a future. Let's see how many crawl out of the woodwork if they draw a "big" team this afternoon. Swansea clearly weren't a big enough draw for them and there aren't that many "big" teams left in it after this weekend.

**Lord Snooty** · 26-01-2015, 14:50

The FACup doesn't have the same magic it used to. It was the big curtain falling event to the season. Everybody watched it because it was live on telly. Now there's a live match almost every day.
I personally would still rather win the FA Cup than get to the Premier League.

**themaclad** · 26-01-2015, 18:19

Personally think we should scrap the Premier League, as for Blackburn charged £20 for tickets for a game that was live on BBC Wales

**Lord Snooty** · 27-01-2015, 00:10

What would make the FA Cup more important to every club is if they were to count as bonus league points.
Three points for progressing through each round and one point if you get knocked out after a replay.
So the Cup winners would have a massive 18 bonus points which could mean winning the League or in Wigan's case, avoid the drop.
Bradford City would still be in the top six in League One rather than being knocked out of the play off spots on Saturday by Fleetwood winning.

**spireitematt** · 27-01-2015, 00:23

They should make it more interesting by giving the winner a Champions League spot and also Premier League clubs should not be allowed to field a weakened side.

**St Charles Owl** · 27-01-2015, 01:10

(27-01-2015, 00:23)spireitematt Wrote: They should make it more interesting by giving the winner a Champions League spot and also Premier League clubs should not be allowed to field a weakened side.

The CL spot would be my suggestion as well, but I can't see anyone going for that anytime soon. Which PL teams played weakened sides anyway? I am not sure that is a problem in the FA Cup like ti can be in the League cup?? I know Chelsea and Man City didn't put out weak sides this weekend, so not sure there is any merit in changing any rules. At the end of the day we love the romance of the FA Cup, the anyone can beat anyone else on their day scenarios, and this weekend we saw that in all its glory!! This weekend for me was what the FA Cup is all about!!

Devongone · 28-01-2015, 18:01

The Champions League place wouldn't be a great solution because how many places a country has depends on previous performance ....... so if we had a couple of crap seasons we could lose the reward for the cup winners. And if our cup winners got a Champions League place everyone else would want that too. IMO that the Champions League should be for Champions anyway.

The cup has lost its glamour because everyone gets to see the top teams all the time. Equally Wembley has lost its glamour because the semi finals take place there and play off finals and the Johnsons baby lotion ........

Some teams do quite senselessly field weakened teams. If you were in the lower reaches of the Premiership and you'd gone out of the cup with a weakened team you'd look pretty stupid this year as many of the likely winners have bitten the dust. Mourinho must be wondering if just an hour from Costa and Matic against Bradford would have had Chelsea on course for two final appearances .......

Anyway on the theory that the two horse races that stop their countries are the Melborne Cup in Oz and our National, but they are not even the best races involving the best horses, just the most exciting ........... I'd change the FA Cup and make it even harder for the Premier clubs and more exciting:-

Qualifying would bring 72 lower tier non-league clubs through to Round 1.

Round 1 would feature those 72 plus Division 2 and the Conference Prem (48 teams).

Round 2 would bring in Division 1, Championship and Premiership = 68 teams to go in the draw with 60 from Round 1.

The final would be Round 8.

Why? Because the Cup is too much of a slow-burner for these days of instant gratification. Bringing the top teams in earlier would make Round 1 pulsating for the potential winners. Round 2 would throw up lots of small teams against top names. Round 3 would still be magical because it would repeat the excitement of Round 2. By the time Premier managers had reached Round Four they'd be fully-committed to the Cup, whoever they were drawn against. Only the Cup Final and internationals at all levels (Women too of course) would be played at Wembley. England Under-19's wouldn't play matches at Chesterfield or Shrewsbury, they'd get the big reward for the big achievement.