FA have announced that the FA CUP final to be moved to 5.15 kick off from 2012! Does the FA not feel tradition is more important than TV revenue. My opinion is 3pm is K.O. Its been 3pm for 100+ years. If that's not convenient Mr Sponsor F@CK OFF! Not we will move it to 5.15pm. Disgraceful!
As I've stated on another thread the FA cup has seized to be the must see event of years gone by, the highlights will be fine, no matter who's playing.
I don't understand what's changed. The FA Cup Final is being played at 5.15pm next season, so that it doesn't conflict with the other Premier League fixtures that will kick off at 3.00pm on the same day. The reason that the game isn't the last fixture of the season, is that UEFA won't allow any games to be played within four weeks of the start of the Euro's. We normally play in Euro's and also have the FA Cup Final played on it's own at the end of the season. Is it normally played less than four weeks from the Euro's, or are the Euro's starting earlier, or has something else changed to create this problem?
Replays will be next to go - congested fixture list means extra time will come into the FA Cup this decade in my opinion. Cup final day will never be the same again
Tony, you may be a complete and utter ****ing ****, but we appear to have found a common ground. An interesting development indeed.
Might as well do away with the FA Cup, full stop. It only gets in the way of the "Big Clubs" making money on lucrative closed season tours.......... Oops, sorry I meant resting their players for the demanding season following!
It is sad to see the FA Cup dying a slow and painful death. The fans seem to have lost their passion for it as well. Look at the 3rd round tie at Wigan while we were still in the PL - I think 5,000 turned up at the DW. Saying that, second string teams being put out must have a factor on attendances. Full prices for a reserve match keeps people away. The FA have to do something to rejuvinate this great competition
It's sad to see - though if 'fixture congestion' really is an issue surely it should be the League Cup that makes way. I still don't see how fixture congestion has suddenly become an issue in the last 10-15 years though. Back in the 70s and 80s the top division had two more teams, meaning 4 more league games per season than now. The top 2 or 3 clubs had European competitions albeit with 3 or 4 games less for those that went all the way so this kind of balances out the total number of games of then and now for the top clubs. However, for any club not in Europe there are less games now than 20-30 years ago, esp as we don't have 2nd, 3rd, 4th replays etc anymore. IMO, talk of fixture congestion is a load of bollocks! I also love the FA Cup format - totally unseeded and anyone can draw anyone on a one-legged basis! Personally I think they should replace the Champions and Europa Leagues with one massive (512 teams?) straight knock-out competition based on the FA Cup format. Unseeded, one-legged ties - if you're drawn away at Barcelona in the first round then tough ****, (or great for lower teams)! It's the luck of the draw. It'd make for an exciting competition but of course will never happen due to less matches meaning less revenue. This is why we have the boring over-bloated, painfully drawn-out European formats at the moment that always mean the same teams make the finals year after year after year.
it's the fa cup ffs.it needs to be reclaimed.so next seasons fa cup could be overshadowed by some **** prem fight.it has to have it's own day on it's traditional time.ffs it's THE ENGLISH CUP FINAL.
The Europa league is awful. The first 3 months of it are crap boring teams the average football fan has never heard of. What kind of audience figures does Braga V Aris get? It's pathetic. Your absolutely right. Europe league needs scrapping, we only need one european tournament.
What was wrong with playing the Champions league final on a Wednesday night? I don't get why they had to move it to a Saturday night, though i'm guessing it's to do with Feel sad in a way that i've grown up with the FA cup been devalued like it has, i know how older relatives and friends look back fondly on past FA cup final days, and aside from Liverpool V West Ham in 2006 there's not really another final i've enjoyed watching in the last 10 years.
funny that cos about 10 years ago man u didn't play in the cup.the death knell of your cup.the day it turned into chasing money.well i for one want it back
