Article in today's Mirror. " The importance of televised Premier League matches at the weekend is probably set to signal the end of FA Cup replays from the third round onwards." Goes on to say " the Premier League meeting was dominated by discussions on televised coverage. Friday nights have not proved a success and Monday nights are no good for the top clubs involved in Europe. The FA's ambition is to have a winter break to help the tournament fortunes of the national team. To make that happen their main bargaining chip with the Premier League is to give up some FA Cup weekends. This could be achieved by abolishing replays from the 3rd round and turning the competition into a midweek event. Talks on a revamp of the football calendar are on the agenda of the FA and PL with Club bosses believing that the inevitable outcome will be the loss of replays in the 3rd, 4th and 5th rounds and the introduction of a winter break." Can't get mi breath. Kick off 5 pm for the Final and probably now this.? Don't the fans and smaller clubs count in this. ? The clues in the name Football ASSOCIATION ( re- a group who share a common purpose). What does everyone else think.?
I think it's a disgrace. The most famous club tournament in the world being relegated to the like of the League Cup (incidentally where does this leave the League Cup?). As for the winter break, when will that be then? We all know the British winter usually has a cold spell that shuts down football for a week or two which can happen any time between November and March..... The FA doesn't give a toss about the fans of any club but particularly fans of clubs outside the Premier League.
Rugby League and Cricket attendances could be affected as well. Their ruling bodies won't want to see Summer football. It's about time they stopped tinkering with the game just to suit the Premier League and Sky TV IMO. The little clubs who rely on the revenue from a possible replay against one of the bigger clubs won't want to see them being shelved.
They should give the winner of the FA cup a place in the champions league , that would make the big boys sit up and take the competition a little more serious . None of this 4th place nonsense .
Just angry that the greed of the owners of the "big" clubs and the cravenness of the FA means that the real fans who actually go to games and the "smaller" clubs are treated as an inconvenience. Id be much happier if we created a European super league and took the top clubs out so they could play with the other big clubs and left the rest behind but that wont happen of course I seem to remember when concerns that this type of thing would happen were raised when the Premier league was formed were laughed at as unfounded scaremongering
Just spotted on " News Now" Press Association saying an FA spokesperson that plans to scrap FA Cup replays and play ties during the week are not on the FA's agenda. Hope that's true.!
I would like to see the biggest clubs go off and do their own thing. The Premier League/FA/Sky have ruined football, and the dreams of 'say' a Carlisle United being promoted to the top tier, whilst Manchester United tumble down to the Second.
