How should the FA Cup (which has lost some prestige and interest over the years) be improved? A) Scrap the league cup. It detracts from the FA Cup. B) Replace three of the league cup match days with PL match days so that every round of the FA Cup (from the Third Round onward) are the only matches played that weekend (currently the R16, QF, SF are played the same weekend as PL matches, which leads to less interest in the FA Cup and postponed PL matches). C) Scrap replays. D) Play all matches on a Saturday and Sunday so that away fans can travel, but... E) Change the TV coverage so that every match from the Third Round onward is on TV (BBC, Sky, ITV, BTSport), which would allow smaller clubs to be on TV automatically so replays and the league cup could be done away with (the best argument for keeping the league cup and replays in the FA Cup is so smaller clubs can make revenue; with my system, they can automatically in the FA Cup). This would require four different time slots each day (12, 3, 6, 9 p.m.). In the Round of 64, four matches are played at each time slot (each major TV company gets one match a time slot); in the Round of 32, two matches are played at each time slot; in the Round of 16, one match is played at each time slot. In the quarterfinals, there are two time slots (3, 6 p.m.) each day. The semifinals are played at 3 p.m., one each day, and the final is played at 3 p.m. on the Saturday immediately following the final week of the Premier League. F) Enter the Championship sides two rounds earlier so that more amateur sides have a chance (similar to what is done with Ligue 2 sides in France). What do you think? I realize traditionalists (generally I consider myself one, but not in this case) want all matches played at the same time, but splitting the matches into different time slots allows EVERYONE to make TV money, and the FA would likely be able to give out better prize money due to greater TV deals.
E. The longest time difference between the first and last start times of a day is rarely more than 4 hours 45 minutes (Saturday games 1t 12:45 P.M. and 5:30 P.M. local). December 26, 2015 was an exception with start times from 12:45 P.M. to 7:45 P.M. local. I don't think they would want 9 hours difference between the first and last start times. If they were going to do four sets of games I think they would do it every 2.5 hours at 12:00 P.M., 2:30 P.M., 5:00 P.M., and 7:30 P.M. local, rather than every 3 hours. I also don't know if there would be enough interest to televise 16 FA Cup games in one day. F. If the League Championship sides entered two rounds earlier, the Third Round would have 20 Premier League clubs entering and 44 clubs advancing from the Second Round. If nobody started in the Second Round; and League Championship, League One, and League Two all started in the First Round; there would be 44*4 - 3*24 = 104 available First Round spots for clubs from earlier rounds, which I think is more than necessary. One option would be to make the Premier League clubs start in the Round of 32, but then a majority of clubs in that round would be new entries, and I don't like that idea. How about this: First Round: 56 clubs from the qualifying rounds + 24 League Two clubs = 80, 40 eliminated and 40 advance to the Second Round Second Round: 40 clubs from the First Round + 24 League Championship clubs + 24 League One clubs = 88, 44 eliminated and 44 advance to the Third Round Third Round: 44 clubs from the Second Round + 20 Premier League clubs = 64 56 clubs advancing to the First Round is still a lot. You could make the Conference National clubs start in the First Round also.
No sooner (ok a couple of days) as I mention this:Premier League clubs, FA in joint talks to alter cup competitions - sources
BBC has come out with something similar: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35587212 Personally, I would: A) Remove the League Cup (allow Championship teams into an expanded Johnstone's Paint Trophy, or whatever its called now, maybe with some Conference teams too) And either: B) Keep FA Cup format as current Or: C) Remove replays but have all League clubs (92) enter in the last 128 stage (with 36 qualifiers, currently 32). For League One and Two, this is one less round; Premier League and Championship teams - one extra round, but there are no replays should should have less games. This allows more non-league teams enter the main rounds, and an increased chance of drawing a PL side. Draw can either be random, or do what Germany does and have higher ranked teams play away to lower league clubs for the first few rounds.
Do you want as big mismatches as there would be when a Premier League club entering in the Round of 128 would have a 66 percent chance at being drawn against a club from League One or worse? That's more than double the 32 percent chance of any one Premier League club being drawn against against a club from League One or worse in the Third Round with the current format. Eliminating the Capital One Cup would reduce games for Premier League clubs, but it would still take months to get the Conference National and lower clubs down to 36, so the Round of 128 couldn't start much earlier than it does now. I don't think the top clubs would want to enter as soon as the Round of 128, especially considering that other countries have fewer than 128 clubs in their cup tournaments. The Copa del Rey has 83, the DFB-Pokal has 64, and the Coppa Italia has 78.
Judging by the articles posted here - the lower league clubs want to play Premier League clubs because that means more money to them. To them, it appears getting some financial stability (from ticket sales, TV, etc) is more important than avoiding a thrashing. If the high percentage is an issue for you, just think of it as making up for the lack of League Cup! The amount of time it would take to get non-league clubs to 36 will take no more time than it does at the moment - its 4 extra clubs that would be required. Solution: move 128 clubs from the Extra Preliminary Round to the Preliminary round (that leaves still leaves 240 entering at the first stage). As replays are scrapped, a more condensed schedule would be possible. In fact, if the main round is one round less, it would be possible to start later: The number of teams is irrelevant - it is the number of matches. For PL clubs, scrapping replays but starting at the L128 stage means 7 matches. Currently it is 10! Compare that to other top level teams from: Spain - 9 Germany - 6 Italy - 5 (for top European clubs, 7 for non-European clubs) And that doesnt take into account the 6/7 matches for the League Cup! So it is up to them - more matches against potentially stronger opponents, or less matches against potentially weaker opponents. Given that PL clubs start during the highly congested winter period, with European KO stages coming up, I know which one I would pick! ---- I am not in favour altering the format of the FA Cup to get less matches per season (scrapping the League Cup would be first on my list). But if a change is required, what I have presented here is what I would like to see. A change is required because the number of domestic fixtures is the biggest problem right now for English teams, with a real danger of losing a CL spot: Number of matches for Cup and League Cup are for those competing in Europe (min. 13, max. 19 for those starting in EL QR3)
If the top clubs entered in the Round of 128 without seeding, fans would get annoyed if there was a draw like Manchester City-Manchester United (which happened in the Third Round a few years ago) while another game in the round had a League Two club play a Conference National, North, or South club. As for 10 FA Cup games, it's possible but extremely unlikely to play and win 4 replays. In 2008-2009, I counted how many FA Cup games were played by the 92 clubs in League Two or higher. The most games played was 7 by Chelsea, followed by 6 each for Arsenal, Everton, and Hull City. The mean FA Cup games played by Premier League clubs was 3.65. I used 2008-2009 because I made a spreadsheet for that season years ago, and I don't want to spend time doing it for a more recent season considering the FA Cup format hasn't changed since then.
On this point, I'd say currently fans aren't remotely annoyed by either 3rd round pairing of "big clubs", or two small clubs drawing each other in the 3rd round. If anything fans are quite pleased to see one of the usual suspects knocked out, and pleased that a smaller side is guaranteed to go through to the next round. I can't see that changing if there was a round of 128 as well as a round of 64. I can't see the premier league sides wanting to play an extra round though.
Scrap the old League Cup. Free 128 draw...it is a cup after all. Winner gets a Champions League spot,runner up Europa League. No replays,every match outcome decided after 90 plus 30 plus penalties if necessary. More prizemoney. The FA Cup should be protected,not destroyed.
Instead of doing 128 teams in the first round proper, you could enter the PL teams in the Round of 64, but the Championship sides earlier (as in France) so that minnows get through.
Making Premier League clubs play extra games will mean they will almost certainly play a full reserve side in the earlier rounds this will dilute the competition. the FA Cup works well as it does it by giving the smaller clubs a chance to progress in to the later rounds by playing each other in the earlier rounds. BT Sport and the BBC need to take more interest in the earlier rounds and to stop showing all Premier league ties in Round Three and bending over for commercial sponsors by guaranteeing every Manchester United fixture is televised live due to there ''Armchair'' numbers. One such fixture was Swansea V United a week before their televised Premier League fixture while they ignoring the traditional third round fixtures featuring a Conference Luton Town beating a Premier League Norwich City, Macclesfield V Sheffield Wednesday and Rochdale V Leeds United. Perhaps it's ironic that Salford City & FC United provided the early round stories this season in part due to there links to Manchester United.
When the TV decisions were made before the game, people didn't know Luton Town would beat Norwich City. Living in the USA I care less about what games are on TV in England than other people do.
The question is how to improve the FA CUP? Television plays an important part of keeping it interesting enough to watch. Luton Town away to Norwich City is a true FA Cup 3rd Round it didn't fit into the Small Team Home V Big Club Away criteria but is far more interesting to a Football Supporter than a reserve Man United V a weakened Swansea the same fixture that will be televised again within a week on the same channel. Man United are guaranteed an FA Cup TV fixture due to the number of Armchair supporters they attract who cannot get to Old Trafford even though tickets are easily available during Cup matches and then call it Mickey Mouse as soon as they get knocked out. What Yanks get on TV or not is immaterial who cares as they are only interested in seeing the same Clubs play each other year in year out??? Football fans here know what makes the FA Cup special and it still is and the format of the draw plays a part of it, an equal amount of bigger clubs go into the hat against an equal number of LL clubs in Round three if two LL clubs meet then there chances of meeting a really big club grows, if lots of Premier League clubs meet then that gives the smaller clubs an opportunity to progress. For me some of the highlights of the year are all about the Fa Cup: 1. Start of the season 2. FA Cup 3rd round draw 3. FA Cup 1st Round draw 4. FA Cup Final, 5. Play-off finals. And how many true Football Fans haven't considered doing an FA Cup Extra Preliminary fixture and then follow the winners to the final? I'm doing it next season.
I actually really like this idea. I just wish they had also removed the replays from the Round of 16 as well. I think it would be wise to keep the replays for the R64 and R32 as it helps small clubs gain enormous TV revenue relative to their club size but the R16 and QF rounds really do not need replays as if a small club gets to those rounds, it is likely they will be on TV anyways. Also, fixture congestion due to R16 and QF replays can come at an awful time for teams in Europe. Finally, like others have mentioned and I have belived for a while, England should can the Football League Cup. Only 13 of 55 UEFA members had a league cup this past season, and it causes unnecessary fixture congestion for a competition that big clubs do not really care about.
http://www.thefa.com/news/the-fa-cup/2016/may/quarter-final-sudden-death-replays Interesting that the first line calls it a "revamped competition" (although I don't know what they were trying to say with the "sudden-death format" in the tagline). "Other new initiatives will be explored to ensure The FA Cup retains its status and appeal."