Enough said
With the focus on the big teams it seems harder to get people interested in this once magical competition
For all of their many faults, I’m not sure what the FA themselves have done wrong here…it’s up to the TV companies who they show.
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As much as I agree, I think it’s a bit rich for us to be saying this a mere 5 days after we were all gushing over it.
FWIW I think interest in the cup has dwindled because it’s not changed with the times. Footballs changed. The big teams and their sponsors rule all now, everything else is just fluff. The FA Cup is becoming a relic. It’s like trying to get the next generation into your old Amiga and swearing it’s just as good as their mates Xbox.
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Don’t agree. Last Sunday in Stockport WAS magical. It’s just that the FA and the broadcasters haven’t caught up.
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Somethings should stay as they are.
Boat race
Wimbledon
Grand national
Bbc cover ups.
Maybe. But boat racing, tennis, horse racing and jimmy saville are all fairly static sports. Football has become a global beast in a relatively short space of time and perhaps the FA Cup is a casualty of that?
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Aaah, that’s the thing, it’s the premier league that’s become a global brand thing not english football as a whole and the cup isn’t part of that. The media have got in bed with that and therefore it is only that media saying it is loosing any magic because they no longer have any real stake in it.
To a large extent it is soley the BBCs fault. Commercial channel can do what they want but BBC have a charter about surving the whole community but they totally ignored that when deciding to only show prem games years ago. Not only in football they’ve done this but other areas, they chase ratings and audiance figures like commercial channels which isn’t there remit. If the BBC still showed games across all leagues like they used to and not solely focus on prem they would still be talking about you can’t beat the magic of the cup and we wouldn’t even be asking the question.
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In answer to the question, not if can sign DJ too with the proceeds.
Fa cup = magic money cup😄
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Sign of the times. Walsall v Leicester isn’t as big an event as 45 years ago because so many adults and kids now support Chelsea, Man Yoo, and Liverpool , innit, wherever they live, and what they really care about is the top four and the Champions League, innit.
The FA haven’t really looked after their competition either, not protecting replays, allowing the draw to take place before all games in a round have been played, not insisting that clubs select their strongest teams, and the farce of VAR being in place for some games but not others.
The broadcasters are blameless, they select the big teams because they deliver audiences. I imagine all the Man Yoo sofa surfers will provide them a bigger audience than Walsall v Leicester, even though our game looks a more interesting contest. Plus, if Leicester go two up after 15 minutes a lot of neutrals will switch off, whereas for the games involving the Prima Donna teams their fans will stay watching whatever the score.
I still love the F A Cup and would always want a cup victory over points in a league game, but I expect those who think like me are becoming fewer and further between. It’s in large part a generational thing, and as I say, the FA have been very weak with their own competition, but I think it is mainly that those who really matter nowadays, the supporters of the Big Six, and the money men behind those clubs, regard the F A Cup as the tertiary competition, and think the PL and the CL are much, much, much more important.
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Agree commercial media is blameless, not so much the BBC. They ignored their charter to only focus on prem and your point about so many now following prem teams is very much in large part because that is all they see on tv and all that is glorified on tv. They have very much marginalised other teams and competions in doing so by not offering an alternative to what the commercial channel offer. Doesn’t happen over night of course but this has been the case now for decades.
Agree FA have not looked after the competion either, but amonst other things when you bare in mind the FA did not have a chair for a long while and was chaired by the chair of the prem for all that time, hardly suprising the direction and decisions favoured the prem.
Good points above which I agree with. I would add that the broadcasters are not just thinking about viewers in this country as the big clubs mentioned are global brands. That is why Manchester United et al are shown live no matter who they are playing
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My biggest gripe is when Premiership clubs play weak teams against lower ranked opposition, this is both insulting and rude in the extreme.
In my days if ya played Manure in the cup, ya played Manure in the cup, not a third team squad full of unknown kids.
For the Premiership clubs, who always expect to be in the last eight no matter what, the F.A. Cup has lost it’s sparkle, which is a real shame, because early rounds contain such excitement for lower and non league, a chance to shine, very often in front of BBC/ITV cameras.
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It really annoys the hell out of me too.
I was talking to my lad just the other day about when we beat Arsenal. He said to me " I bet they had a lot of kids playing" I had to explain that just didn’t happen back then.
The money for finishing in the top 4 and the cost of getting relegated from the Premier League has just crushed the soul out of the cups. You look at some of the clubs, big clubs but have won nothing for years and years. I saw Newcastle’s line up v Sheff Wednesday last week and I just sighed. You ask any of their fans, top 4 or win the F.A Cup and I guarantee the majority would say win the F.A Cup. Fair enough they had the League Cup coming up but the point is still valid and there will be many other examples of teams that have won nothing for years that will do the same.
It won’t change now, it will only get worse. The League Cup is living on borrowed time I reckon. The cups still matter to us though, and so they should.
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The radio 5 live reporter was very complimentary about what a great cup tie it turned into
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Yes and no.
So the big teams prioritise yes but that should make the cup upsets more often in theory.
Less magic yes but it’s still there If you want it. Always gonna be low priority when the cash means nothing to you. The 10 thousand at Stockport spoke volumes for the value of the cup.
Although you ask any fan of a Premier league club they would love to win it. Proper fans that is not weird foreign twitter accounts on the Internet.
I’m not even sure how much playing weakened teams actually benefits some clubs. Like the ones that aren’t in Europe for example. They only play 38 league games a season + whatever cup games. Sure you risk injury but you do in any game and the momentum built from playing on a regular basis could be more beneficial.
I wonder what some of the players actually think of it? Being denied a real opportunity to win trophies. When they get older they can show their grandkids the finishing 4th trophy, or the we avoided relegation medal. I get it, it’s all about the money like most things in life but it is still kind of sad.
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No. We sold out an away end, Stockport sold out their home ends. Everyone was happy that we were through.
Fact is, TV companies will look at what brings in the most viewers, and unfortunately Man United vs anyone or an all Premier League tie that we already see twice a season will bring more to their channel than Walsall vs Leicester City. Sad, but true.
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Disagree with you there.
Newcastle have a very small first team squad, especially now that Kraft, Targett, and Shelvey are injured, there was little scope for rotation given that the Leicester game was a much bigger fixture, and all of the second string players - several of whom are Championship standard and are yet are always in the matchday squad - should have done enough to beat them on the day.
If Newcastle didn’t have a league cup quarter final a few days later it would have been full-strength v Sheff Wed. Newcastle have played strong teams in all the league cup games and it was against Tranmere when they got unreservedly shit kicked for 90 odd minutes, which went unpunished resulting in Kraft being out for the season and Bruno Guimares being out for many weeks.
As for the question regarding the cup, no it isn’t. Huge shame the Leicester game isn’t on tv, but that doesn’t define the magic of the cup.
Take a step back and the romance is rooted in the money as much as the occasion
Back in the day this would have been financially beneficial to the big boys with prize and gate money (plus European football later on) having a big impact on big clubs
Now you have premier league teams who could play in an empty stadium and not notice the lack of gate money let alone the pennies from the FAC
But money wise for us this is still the big carrot
Would be nice to see the 4th placed premier league team have to play off against the FAC Winners for the champions league.won’t happen though FA and Premier League not the same organisation
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