Will and Should The FA Cup Eliminate Replays?

Yes, this is definitely the right thing to do. They also need to cancel the Carling Cup.

 

i like the concept of replays

 

Scrap FA Cup replays and settle games by E/T and penalties.

(Even the World Cup final is settled by E/T and pens. The FA Cup is NOT bigger than that).

I've often thought the Carling Cup should be scrapped altogether, but if it gives clubs a chance to field their youth/reserve players, so be it. Just don't complain when they do.

 

That's faulty reasoning. The CL final is settled on one night while a second-round qualifying tie in mid-July is played over two legs. Which is bigger?

Most club cup competitions have two-legs per KO round, so the replay-system used in the FA Cup is already condensed compared to most formats used elsewhere.

I support the current format as the reasons given (in the linked article) as to why the FA Cup needs to be shortened are, quite frankly, stupid.

 

If doing away with replays frees up dates to allow for a mid-season break, why is it stupid?

I've always been a traditionalist on this, favouring replays. But if extra time/pks in the first game really did allow for a mid-season break, I'd be in favour.

 

Scrap England friendlies at ridiculous times and there is your winter break. Start the season earlier, like a lot of leagues already do, including the Bundesliga that we compare ourselves to so much, and there is your winter break.

Whoever said we should scrap the Carling Cup is being stupid, why would you want this done? Every single league in the world that I can think of has the equivalent of the Carling Cup, why do WE need to scrap it?

Scrapping replays wouldn't really solve much, but would totally ruin the beauty of the cup, and I think a lot of managers would prefer it to extra time anyway. Extra time means that your players are potentially playing for 150 minutes, nobody wants this mid season already. Players are more likely to get injured playing for this long and will be less fit for the next match, this would ultimately end up with clubs not taking it too seriously, so you get League Cup syndrome, teams play reserve teams because they cannot risk players for the league.

Hitman no. 1, I think you will find the FA Cup Final actually has the same extra time and penalty rules as the World Cup Final.

Maybe we should kick all the non league teams out of the cup so that less games will be played and more time will be leftover for this sacred winter break. Players don't need some ********ing winter break, man up.

 

I don't think that a winter beak would be that beneficial to the national side, it would do no harm but it on it's own is not the solution to England's problems. Even if it would turn the national side into World Champions though I'd be against scrapping FA Cup replays. My club comes first in my priorities by a considerable distance. I personally like replays as they are traditional and often enjoyable games but for a club like the one I support they can be of massive importance. If we got a large Premiership side at home in the cup we might just draw that game, the financial boost that two games against big sides would bring us would be huge. For small clubs and clubs struggling to get by, earning a replay against a big club can be fantastic.

I'd also be strongly against getting rid of the League Cup, as a fan of a small club it's a rare opportunity to see us play against big opposition and with the big clubs not taking it seriously, an opportunity to get somewhere in a major competition.

 

Can you link me to that? A lot of the cup competitions in European countries tend to be based on the League Cup format, in which only League clubs can participate, and not like the FA Cup where mylocalpubteam fc can play.

 

I just think the author is grasping at straws when he tries to link FA Cup replays to the England NT. Last season the big English sides crashed-out of the Champions League and FA Cup (except Chelsea) relatively early. It wasn't really a grueling season for any players on the England NT. At the same time, the golden ball winner of the World Cup went all the way to the final in both the Europa League and the domestic cup.

Plus the EPL fans I know all love watching football during the holiday season. They wouldn't know what to do without it.

So the fans would lose out in two places (FA Cup replays and holiday football) and gain nothing.

 

But Wayne Rooney was 'tired'! We need an excuse as to why we didn't win the World Cup because our players are the best in the world!

 

That's a slightly different argument from the one being made regarding a winter break. The reasoning for the break is that as players play for so long without a rest, they become much more prone to exhaustion and injury. In other words, it's playing for so long without any break that is more detrimental than the absolute number of games. I'd be really interested in a study of injuries as the season progresses in England and in leagues that do have a break. I can't back it up with solid evidence, but it certainly seems that players in the Premier League are picking up a lot more significant injuries in the Feb/Mar/Apr timeframe than in the fall.

The break would be after the holiday season.

 

The pertinent question is which countries have their top teams playing in two separate domestic cup competitions. I presume the answer is 11 of the 53.

 

I think it's actually fewer than 11 from what I've been researching. Most Premiership teams will play 6 games max in the League cup, but potentially 7. It's just not a very good excuse though, players should not be tired after all this.

 

Well, if you are going to conduct that study I would just focus on England and Germany. Conceptually it's just very difficult to believe that having a meager one week off (like France, Italy and Spain currently have) would make a world of difference for another tournament taking place 6 months later. But I wouldn't be surprised if the 3-4 weeks break in Germany really does help (of course this isn't a realistic option in England anyway).

 

Ah nice find. I was classing a lot of what are classified as domestic cups on there as equivalent of league cups because in many of them they are only competed in by football league teams. I don't really know what the deal is with them and how they distinguish what is the league cup and what is a normal cup.

 

I hate replays, there is no need for them and clogs up an already busy fixture list for most clubs so i would just settle it on penalties, extra time is a waste also.

What i would like to see added to the league format is, if the game ends in a draw then have a penalty shootout for an extra point, so team who loses shootout still gets a point for draw but winners leave with 2 points, would make the league a whole lot more interesting!

 

Playing football matches is a waste in the first place, I think matches should just be decided by penalties right from the start, saves us all wasting 90 minutes of our lives eh?

 

FA Cup replays can be a huge source of income for smaller clubs if they manage to hold a top team at home. Personally I'd like to see 2nd replays brought back, but that'll never happen.

I don't really get the fuss about the League Cup either. Prem teams come in in round 2 or 3, semi-finals is round 6, so it's hardly a huge amount of matches, and most use it as a good way of blooding youngsters/fringe players anyway.

That'll just lead to more teams being defensive and playing for draws, knowing that they could get two points for it. It's OK for a game to be a draw you know, nobody has to win every single time.

 

Some thoughts.

The FA Cup is the oldest challenge competition in the world, with a long and honourable history. It has a format that has stood the test of time and is still as popular amongst the fans as it always was. The "Super Clubs" at the very top of the game don't like it because it can involve fixtures at awkward times during the Premiership and Champions League run ins.

If these clubs think the FA Cup is an irrelevance, they are free to use the competition in the same way they use the Carling Cup.... as an opportunity to give their youngsters a run out. The problem is, that these youngsters have a habit of getting their teams to the latter stages of the competition when all of a sudden.. lo and behold... the top players suddenly want to take part. With the sniff of a major trophy (and the FA Cup is still a major trophy) in the air and perhaps some big bucks from endorsements around, they all of a sudden want to be involved.

Be that as it may.

The system of replays has already been curtailed from the pre-premiership era. Drawn ties used to be replayed over and over until a winner was achieved. In the semi final of 1979, Liverpool and Arsenal couldn't be separated until a FOURTH replay..!! Five times they played each other, and the first three replays also included extra time. And yet, neither Arsenal nor Liverpool players complained about being "exhausted". Just think about it...

At that time, there was a 42 match league programme, the players of Arsenal and Liverpool slugged out five matches to decide who would go to Wembley, and after the final came the British Championship. Players from both teams had to play three tough internationals in a week.

Did they whinge and complain..? "Oh, we're tired". "We need a rest". "There's too much football". No. They got on with it because playing football was what they did. They weren’t multi millionaires with a string of prostitutes hanging off their dicks. They were footballers. Playing football was their living and when there was a game to be played, they played.

Footballers are cosseted and pampered beyond belief now. Players want to cherry pick their games. Take the recent friendly international between England and Ghana. How many "superstars" dropped out of that game.? Simple reason: It wasn't a EC qualifier and certainly not a "glory" game of any kind. All of a sudden a week after the EC Qualifyer against Wales, it was "Ohh, I've pulled a hammy" or “I’m not available”. Funny how these little injuries before internationals always miraculously clear up in time for the next Premiership match.

The FA Cup has already been changed to accommodate the pampered Prima Donnas of the Premiership. Only one replay now and then its extra time and penalties. There are no second or third or fourth replays. That and four fewer league fixtures, no Home International fixtures and massive clubs with huge squads that can easily ride out the earlier phases of the competition means players play far less actual "game time" than ever.

And let's not forget that players perform on almost perfect playing surfaces nowadays. How do you think Rooney would have performed on the old Baseball Ground pitch in January..? Or at Loftus Road (pre plastic) or Filbert Street. Godawful horrible pitches that would get churned up into strength sapping bogs. The cherry pickers would all be conveniently pulling hammies in time to miss those matches, for sure.

And let's not forget the effect of mass substitutions, either. Pre-premiership there was only one, and later two, substitutions allowed. Players who started the game had to be fit enough to be able to finish it. Now a manager can replace half his team after an hour against Wigan to "rest them" for next Wednesday's CL match. Perish the thought that their precious superstars might actually have to graft out an entire 90 minutes..!!

And so we are supposed to completely suborn the oldest challenge cup competition in the world to keep the preening, precious few happy..?

The FA Cup is the one true romance left in a cynical, nasty, vindictive, bitter game, ruled by megalomaniac club chairmen and one-eyed, blinkered managers who can see no further than the narrow interests of their own clubs.

When I think of the FA Cup, yeah, I think of all the usual things. A white horse, Stanley Matthews in 1953, Ricky Villa dancing through the Man City defence to score the greatest winning goal of them all. But I also think of the thrill of anticipation I used to get as a kid. After Christmas and New Year, came the Third Round. Listening in to on a plastic radio to get the draw for the next round. Hoping that Charlton might draw Arsenal or Liverpool or Leeds at The Valley. We never did, but the dream was always there.

We got to the fourth round in 1969 and were drawn away to Arsenal. We dared to hope that we could win but more realistically, perhaps get a draw at Highbury and bring them back to our place for a replay and make a few quid and perhaps have a better chance of winning. As it was, we lost 2 – 0, but from the draw to the day of the game was a glorious, wonderful, anticipation filled build up. We had a chance.

Take away replays and the dice, already heavily loaded in favour of the big clubs become even more loaded in their favour.

And that’s what the FA Cup does. It gives the fans a dream. Fans of smaller clubs. Fans of the Charlton Athletics, and Torquay Uniteds and hundreds of smaller clubs, all with their own aims, whether it be to get into the first round proper, or even to get to the third round and the chance of a shot at glory.

This is what football is supposed to be all about. It’s meant to be about dreams, and the cup replay is a part of that dream. A second shot. Get ‘em back to our place…. See how they cope with the infamous Puddle Lane slope…. Lets see how Drogba likes getting changed in a corrugated iron shed….. let ‘em quake at the sound of the Bogmarsh Wanderers Roar.

The FA Cup gives hundreds of thousands of football fans of small clubs all over the country that dream. For most it’s a forlorn hope, but there’s always next season…. Always another shot next year….

If we do away with replays, the FA Cup loses something of what makes it great. And for what? To give a small minority of over pampered prima donnas even more time off from their ever decreasing workload..?

No, I say. Make ‘em play. Let them earn their wages. Let them go to the little grounds in the middle of nowhere on Wednesday nights in January to find out what it’s like to play on a mudbath under lighting that barely qualifies as such. Let them get changed on a wooden bench in a shed, and have a cold shower after the game. A little humility might remind some of them where they came from and actually do them a bit of good.

The FA Cup matters in the hearts and minds of the overwhelming, vast majority of football fans in England. The snooty “fans” of big clubs may turn their noses up at it in the early rounds, but they all want tickets for the final, don’t they..?

The Cup is what it is, what it always has been and I for one always hope it always will be.

I just hope we get a good draw next season.

 

personally I also don't like replays of the matches.. but if the match is really good and its on close fight I want to watch it again... especially if its Championship...

 

FA Cup...time to hibernate...

http://www.socceramerica.com/article/55642/time-for-fa-cup-to-hibernate.html