The world's oldest cup competition and the people that run it keep doing things to devalue it. Its shameful. Stripping it of everything that made it special because they want to make more money.
Is this about reducing games or not? If so why are we keeping pathetic international breaks to play meaningless fkn games. I may be well off the mark there but as most have said replays for some of the smaller clubs are lifelines to them.
Watch as all the big clubs bugger off to play lucrative friendlies halfway round the world as we get to the later rounds.
Lots more clubs adding their voices to the resistance against this. Hopefully it will be enough pressure to get the FA to withdraw this daft change.
The fact that they haven’t consulted with with the EFL before making the change should be enough to reverse it. Yet again shows how out of touch the FA are and shows there needs to be a proper independent regulator put in place to prevent favouritism towards the big premier league clubs.
You'd think there would be grounds for some kind of judicial review purely based upon the fact that they didn't consult most of the participants.
The EFL clubs should just **** it off and not enter. I remember Man Utd pulled out of it back in the day to go and play the World Club Cup.
I’d love to see it, if they’re not consulted on rule changes then surely they cannot be forced to compete. A joint decision like that from EFL clubs could be the shock that needs to happen to force through some sort of change.
Apparently, pressure was put on them by the government and the FA to take part in the Club World Cup because England were bidding for the 2006 World Cup. They thought that if Man Utd didn't take part, it might jeopardise the bid. So Man Utd had no choice but to withdraw from the FA Cup because of the fixture clash. I'm not sure how much I believe that and it certainly caused a fuss at the time. EFL clubs withdrawing might send a strong message. But I'm not sure how keen some non-league clubs would be to withdraw. A good run, even if they don't make it as far as the first round proper can be enough to cover their wage bills for the season. It's a real conundrum because someone has to make a stand at some point.
The 2006 bid turned out well didn't it Let the non league clubs enter and play each other all the way until the PL clubs enter and then the lads playing for those clubs can have a day out at a PL ground against the big boys.
Read a Lincoln fan talking about how they wouldn't be in league one now if it wasn't for their FA Cup run a few years back as it gave them the financial springboard to move forward. That run included a replay against Ipswich which with the new rules wouldn't have happened and they probably lose in extra time. The magic is completely gone.
