Love for the FA Cup- Is it a generational thing?

[theboybilly]

Things that have ruined the FA Cup
1. Having semi finals at Wembley.
2. Man Utd pulling out of it.
3. Having other games on the same day.
4. Not having it as the last game of the season.
5. Changing the ko time.

Things to do to breath life back into it.

1. Have semis at neutral grounds.
2. Bring back the European Cup-Winners' Cup *
3. Last game of the season after the end of the prem.
4. Only game on a Saturday afternoon at 3pm.
5. Scrap pens in the final and have a replay.

*I agree with all of this except maybe this one alteration

 

[Butch Willykins]

Things that have ruined the FA Cup
1. Having semi finals at Wembley.
2. Man Utd pulling out of it.
3. Having other games on the same day.
4. Not having it as the last game of the season.
5. Changing the ko time.

Things to do to breath life back into it.

1. Have semis at neutral grounds.
2. Give the winners a Champions league spot(or runners up, if need be)
3. Last game of the season after the end of the prem.
4. Only game on a Saturday afternoon at 3pm.
5. Scrap pens in the final and have a replay.

Very much this.

 

[Seagull on the wing]

Love the F.A. as long as it does not hinder the league campaign...ie injuries,suspensions...
Better at the Amex cos'get them free...and it brings monies in.
But should go back to the old fashioned Final....Last Saturday...3pm K.O.

 

[bhafc99]

Things that have ruined the FA Cup
1. Having semi finals at Wembley.
2. Man Utd pulling out of it.
3. Having other games on the same day.
4. Not having it as the last game of the season.
5. Changing the ko time.

Agree.

Would add (as others have too):
6. Televising so many Premiership/Champions League etc games live over the course of a season has diminished the impact of what used to be more or less the only live game/event of the year, or so the Final felt. Now it's just one of hundreds.
7. Spreading early rounds over so many days/different KO times. It used to be that everyone played their 3rd rnd tie at 3pm on the Saturday, for example. Now it feels like less than half the games are actually then.
8. Premiership teams (in the main) deliberately fielding weakened teams.
9. The general concentration of footballing power among a small elite. OK, Wigan won it last year, but for many years it felt that the Final was an interchangeable parade of the same few teams (Man Utd, Chelsea etc) over and over again.
10. The widening of what constitutes a successful season. Once upon a time, you could aim for winning the league, or one of the cups. And that was it. Now you can target finishing sixth in the Championship, for example. Equally, the scrap for 'European' places in the Premiership.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Agree.

Would add (as others have too):
6. Televising so many Premiership/Champions League etc games live over the course of a season has diminished the impact of what used to be more or less the only live game/event of the year, or so the Final felt. Now it's just one of hundreds.
7. Spreading early rounds over so many days/different KO times. It used to be that everyone played their 3rd rnd tie at 3pm on the Saturday, for example. Now it feels like less than half the games are actually then.
8. Premiership teams (in the main) deliberately fielding weakened teams.
9. The general concentration of footballing power among a small elite. OK, Wigan won it last year, but for many years it felt that the Final was an interchangeable parade of the same few teams (Man Utd, Chelsea etc) over and over again.
10. The widening of what constitutes a successful season. Once upon a time, you could aim for winning the league, or one of the cups. And that was it. Now you can target finishing sixth in the Championship, for example. Equally, the scrap for 'European' places in the Premiership.

11. Put the draw back to its rightful slot of MONDAY lunchtime.

Having the 4th round draw, before some 3rd round ties have even been played, is bullshit.

 

[Dan Aitch]

First fa cup I went to was the 1971 cup final between Leeds and arsenal.

Oh no it wasn't.

'71 was the Arsenal/Liverpool Charlie George cup final. '72 was Leeds/Arsenal. So ner.

 

[KJP]

11. Put the draw back to its rightful slot of MONDAY lunchtime.

Having the 4th round draw, before some 3rd round ties have even been played, is bullshit.

Disagree with having it on Monday, I like being able to watch the draw, have it Sunday night after the final match of the weekend

 

[Official Old Man]

There is no greater competition in the world than the FA CUP (I'm 58). My first team was Spurs who I supported simply because they played Chelsea in the '67 final and aged 12 it was the first game I remember watching. Promotion to the old league one (premier now) in '79 (I'd grown up now and supported my local team) was something we worked hard for but to get to the cup final in '83 was something that cannot be explained. In those days a manager would never dream of resting a player for a cup game, far from it he would play his best team. Bring back neutral ground semis, final is last game of season, draw to be same time, be it Sunday or Monday, every round oh and get rid of these ex players pulling out the balls as no one is bigger than the draw.
But all of this will never come true all the time the Champions League is around. Good news is with the CL moving to BT maybe it will be talked about less.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

But the FA Cup Semi-Finals ARE played on neutral venues at the moment!

 

[Baron Pepperpot]

If Brighton beat Liverpool in the FA Cup now it would be something we would be very happy about. But there would always be the suggestion that the victory is tarnished as we didn't play them with best in tow.

The home victory in 1984, correct me if I'm wrong, was against a full strength side that went on to win the European Cup.

That was massive !

 

[Gullys Cats]

I love the FA Cup, part of the magic of football!

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

I was born in 1980, but I think the first final I saw on TV* was the '92 final of Liverpool vs Sunderland. I used to snap up the various magazines about the cup final.

I love the early rounds of the minnows and Albion (when we were poor), but not so much nowadays. The TV scheduling is dire. They never seem to pick genuinely interesting ties and it appears to be spread over numerous channels.

The tournament has been devalued (weakened sides/semi-finals at Wembley/clubs opting out) and I can't see the magic ever returning.

I think the last FA Cup final I watched all the way through was Liverpool vs West Ham '05. The final doesn't interest me anymore.


* I had watched others, but intermittently on a tiny portable TV, as I was generally playing cricket on the day of the final.

I'd like the next tv deal to have a clause in it that the lowest remaining team has to been shown each round and a maximum of 4 televised games.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

This is the only way

Haven't the winners over the past few years, Wigan aside all qualified for the CL anyway?

Current rules would have seen millwall and Portsmouth in the CL as runners up

 

[The Large One]

The only way to seriously make it great again would be to give the 4th champions league spot to the winner.

The only way to make it great again is for there not to be another competition that's so heavily weighted financially to make other competitions irrelevant.

There's £1.8bn in TV money floating around English football every year. Only 20 clubs receive it.

Bollocks, innit?

 

[The Large One]

If Brighton beat Liverpool in the FA Cup now it would be something we would be very happy about. But there would always be the suggestion that the victory is tarnished as we didn't play them with best in tow.

The home victory in 1984, correct me if I'm wrong, was against a full strength side that went on to win the European Cup.

That was massive !

Bruce Grobbelaar
Phil Neal
Mark Lawrenson
Steve Nicol
Alan Hansen
Alan Kennedy
Sammy Lee
Graeme Souness
Craig Johnston
Michael Robinson
Ian Rush

Sub: Ronnie Whelan

Whelan came on for Souness, who was fed up of getting the shit kicked out of him by Tony Grealish.

In terms of the European Cup Final (you're right - it was the Grobelaar 'bandy legs' penalty shoot-out), Liverpool should have been playing Dundee United in the final rather than AS Roma. It later came to light that Roma bribed the ref for the second-leg semi final (Dundee United were 2-0 up after the first leg).

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Here's how you can make the FA Cup competitive again....


Depending upon where you finish in the competition:

Winners get 4 points for their League season
Finalists get 3 points for their League season
Semi-finalists get 2 points for their League season
Quarter-finalists get 1 point for their League season

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Utd opting out. But lets be CLEAR the FA sanctioned this to play some tournament in the States in helping with a world cup bid (which went to Germany). Im no utd fan BTW. But this started the devaluation.

Then the champs league. Then semis at Wemberley. Originally a one off becuase it was the (at the time) only ground big enough to fit in Spurs/Arsenal and Utd/Weds fans both being derbys. The final nail is having the cup final before the last lot of league games.

As a showpiece the FA Cup final is no more.

The FA contributed to its own cups downfall basically with the sanctioning of the (at the time) FA Premier League.

 

[Baron Pepperpot]

Bruce Grobbelaar YES
Phil Neal YES
Mark Lawrenson YES
Steve Nicol YES (SUB)
Alan Hansen YES
Alan Kennedy YES
Sammy Lee YES
Graeme Souness YES
Craig Johnston YES
Michael Robinson YES (SUB)
Ian Rush YES

Sub: Ronnie Whelan YES

Whelan came on for Souness, who was fed up of getting the shit kicked out of him by Tony Grealish.

In terms of the European Cup Final (you're right - it was the Grobelaar 'bandy legs' penalty shoot-out), Liverpool should have been playing Dundee United in the final rather than AS Roma. It later came to light that Roma bribed the ref for the second-leg semi final (Dundee United were 2-0 up after the first leg).

And that entire team played in the European Cup Final that year... (see my addition above)

Bruce Grobbelaar, Alan Hansen, Alan Kennedy, Sammy Lee played 67 matches each that season.

Says a lot for football now *Fold arms with frumpy face*