No more FA cup replays.. | Vital Football

No more FA cup replays..

Spursex

Spursex

Alert Team
The FA Cup has scrapped replays from the first round proper from the 2024-25 season in a six-year agreement to restructure the competition.

The 2025 FA Cup final will be played on the Saturday of the weekend of the Premier League’s matchday 37 — the penultimate round of fixtures — with league fixtures not played on the Friday night or Saturday to give exclusivity to the event, with the Football Association confirming the changes on Thursday.

Additionally, there will be no further midweek rounds in the competition.



This season’s FA Cup final will take place on May 25 at Wembley Stadium, six days after the final round of matches in the Premier League season.

The semi-final stage will take place over the weekend of April 20-21, with current holders Manchester City facing Chelsea in Saturday’s match before Manchester United play Championship side Coventry City the following day — with both matches to be staged at Wembley.

The FA Cup finals in 2021 and 2022 were both staged one week before the end of the Premier League season, but all other finals since 2013 have been staged following its conclusion.

The FA Cup will also scrap replays from the first-round stage — the round at which League One and League Two teams enter the competition — onwards next season.

The move is designed to ease fixture congestion, with replays currently in place for the first-round to the fourth-round stage. Replays from the fifth-round stage onwards were removed by the FA in 2018.

However, the mid-season break in the Premier League has been removed from the calendar to “allow a mid-August start date for the Premier League.”

FA chief executive Mark Bullingham has said: “The new schedule ensures the magic of the Cup is protected and enhanced, while working for the whole of the English game. The longer summer period also allows a much-needed player break before the start of the next season.”

Premier League chief executive, Richard Masters said: “The FA and the Premier League have worked in partnership to deliver more exclusive weekends without compromising the excitement of knockout football and this has been achieved at the same time as allowing us to ease fixture congestion generally.”


The Premier League has separately announced an increase in funding to the football pyramid, adding they were providing an additional £33million for grassroots football on top of the £100m it currently gives to good causes each season.
 
Everything has consequences. This means that the smaller clubs that progress into and beyond the 3rd round won't get the extra 45% gate receipts from replays. It could even mean that the smaller clubs would prefer the away fixture. Not sure whether they can switch the tie if they're drawn at home but that could make a lot of difference to their annual turnover.

It certainly makes common sense for the teams in Europe. I'm not sure it makes any sense to every other club though. They would surely welcome the extra games.

Worth remembering there's 24 teams in all the EFL leagues. 46 league games is too much for the paying supporter.
 
Doing away with stupid summer international tournaments that go on forever and bring the ever popular International breaks into the season , decreasing the number of teams in the CL , doing away with the ridiculous Uefa Conference League and keeping FACup replays would do more to “ enhance the magic “ of the FACup .

Tell the likes of Eastleigh Town that they will not earn a replay at Manchester United in front of 70,000 ,,that the magic of the cup is being enhanced .

This move is solely devised for the minority .

They should be ashamed of themselves .

Sorry , but if they want to make things easier for the players ,,they should bring in a new third division , reduce the PL to 16 teams and follow the Scottish league and reduce the the number of teams in each division .
 
Spursex said:
The FA Cup has scrapped replays from the first round proper from the 2024-25 season in a six-year agreement to restructure the competition.

The 2025 FA Cup final will be played on the Saturday of the weekend of the Premier League’s matchday 37 — the penultimate round of fixtures — with league fixtures not played on the Friday night or Saturday to give exclusivity to the event, with the Football Association confirming the changes on Thursday.

Additionally, there will be no further midweek rounds in the competition.



This season’s FA Cup final will take place on May 25 at Wembley Stadium, six days after the final round of matches in the Premier League season.

The semi-final stage will take place over the weekend of April 20-21, with current holders Manchester City facing Chelsea in Saturday’s match before Manchester United play Championship side Coventry City the following day — with both matches to be staged at Wembley.

The FA Cup finals in 2021 and 2022 were both staged one week before the end of the Premier League season, but all other finals since 2013 have been staged following its conclusion.

The FA Cup will also scrap replays from the first-round stage — the round at which League One and League Two teams enter the competition — onwards next season.

The move is designed to ease fixture congestion, with replays currently in place for the first-round to the fourth-round stage. Replays from the fifth-round stage onwards were removed by the FA in 2018.

However, the mid-season break in the Premier League has been removed from the calendar to “allow a mid-August start date for the Premier League.”

FA chief executive Mark Bullingham has said: “The new schedule ensures the magic of the Cup is protected and enhanced, while working for the whole of the English game. The longer summer period also allows a much-needed player break before the start of the next season.”

Premier League chief executive, Richard Masters said: “The FA and the Premier League have worked in partnership to deliver more exclusive weekends without compromising the excitement of knockout football and this has been achieved at the same time as allowing us to ease fixture congestion generally.”


The Premier League has separately announced an increase in funding to the football pyramid, adding they were providing an additional £33million for grassroots football on top of the £100m it currently gives to good causes each season.
Click to expand...
Has anyone got any information on the 133 million ?
How it is distributed , to whom and what is considered a good cause?
 
Walthamstow wanderer said:
Doing away with stupid summer international tournaments that go on forever and bring the ever popular International breaks into the season , decreasing the number of teams in the CL , doing away with the ridiculous Uefa Conference League and keeping FACup replays would do more to “ enhance the magic “ of the FACup .

Tell the likes of Eastleigh Town that they will not earn a replay at Manchester United in front of 70,000 ,,that the magic of the cup is being enhanced .

This move is solely devised for the minority .

They should be ashamed of themselves .

Sorry , but if they want to make things easier for the players ,,they should bring in a new third division , reduce the PL to 16 teams and follow the Scottish league and reduce the the number of teams in each division .
Click to expand...

My vision has always been moving to a UK based football setup. The teams at the top of the pyramid play across the entire geography. Then the regional structure comes in as you move down the pyramid. No division should be any more than 16 teams and the season mostly runs from Sep to Apr.
 
Walthamstow wanderer said:
Doing away with stupid summer international tournaments that go on forever and bring the ever popular International breaks into the season , decreasing the number of teams in the CL , doing away with the ridiculous Uefa Conference League and keeping FACup replays would do more to “ enhance the magic “ of the FACup .

Tell the likes of Eastleigh Town that they will not earn a replay at Manchester United in front of 70,000 ,,that the magic of the cup is being enhanced .

This move is solely devised for the minority .

They should be ashamed of themselves .

Sorry , but if they want to make things easier for the players ,,they should bring in a new third division , reduce the PL to 16 teams and follow the Scottish league and reduce the the number of teams in each division .
Click to expand...
This is all being forced by FIFA and Uefa's encroachment into the domestic seasons - something had to give, players are not robots.
 

The Telegraphs view of it all, a snap shot:​

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English football traditions are being vanquished and for what?​


To satisfy the Premier League, football has sullied its crown jewels and turned the FA Cup into an afterthought

Oliver Brown
Chief Sports Writer
19 April 2024 • 7:30am
Oliver Brown



A total of 732 clubs entered this season’s FA Cup, from Glossop North End to Great Wakering Rovers, Saltash United to Shepshed Dynamo. But in the end, the fate of all is decided by just 20. Or, to be more accurate, four: the four Premier League titans poised to qualify for next season’s engorged Champions League group phase, and who now regard the world’s oldest cup competition as such a trivial distraction that even the final stands to lose its status, from next season, as the last game in the domestic calendar.

It is at this point that you ask whether football understands the price of everything and the value of nothing. The poor, neglected FA Cup has suffered so many indignities over the past 25 years, from Manchester United’s decision to swerve it altogether for the 2000 Fifa Club World Championship to the soulless move to hold both semi-finals at Wembley just to help recoup the cost of the stadium’s rebuild. Now that the latest revamp mandates the wholesale scrapping of replays, it resembles more of a ravaged husk than ever.

With its heritage already disfigured by the plans to move it behind a paywall on TNT Sports from the 2025-26 campaign, the death knell for the replay feels like the final insult. Replays might be treated by the top clubs as a ghastly inconvenience, but they represent a fundamental component of the FA Cup’s fabric. Take them away and you are left without Ryan Giggs’ iconic wonder-strike in 1999 against Arsenal, and Manchester City’s staggeringly improbable comeback five years later to beat Tottenham 4-3. There is no longer room for Ronnie Radford’s glorious 35-yarder, which propelled Hereford to their triumph over Newcastle in 1972. Arguably, there is not even space for the career of John Motson, who first forged his reputation with his commentary on Radford’s goal.
Some vital financial considerations arise here, too. FA Cup history is littered with tales of clubs whose very survival has been predicated on earning a replay, either at a ramshackle outpost or at one of the game’s gleaming citadels. Football has sought to assuage these concerns by promising an extra £33 million for the grassroots, but you wonder how such a figure has been calculated. What exact monetary value can be attached, for example, to Exeter’s achievement against Manchester United in 2005? By battling to a goalless draw at Old Trafford, they were able not only to take Wayne Rooney et al back to St James’ Park but to collect such a windfall that they clawed themselves out of administration.

The hard-hearted interpretation is that football is only losing four games of a grossly bloated schedule. Who at the summit will possibly mourn the mothballing of first-round replays? Well, Cray Valley Paper Mills certainly will. Last November, the Eltham side secured a south-east London derby for the ages against Charlton Athletic of League One. And by forcing a replay that was broadcast live on BBC, they guaranteed a funding lifeline to last them years.
What truly sticks in the craw is that football takes priceless memories away from the little people while accommodating hollow pre-season friendlies for the big boys. How does Manchester City versus Chelsea in Columbus, Ohio grab you this summer? Or Arsenal against Liverpool in Philadelphia? Why are these glorified shirt-selling exercises held as sacrosanct while the essence of the FA Cup is stripped away piece by piece?

And as for the insistence by Mark Bullingham, the Football Association’s chief executive, that the Cup’s magic will be “protected and enhanced” by the changes? It is a risible claim. On the contrary, they have sabotaged the very spectacles of which many fans would spend their lives dreaming. The argument is that the FA’s hands were tied by Uefa’s implacable commitment to Champions League expansion. But what a sad indictment this is of where the sport’s priorities truly lie.

Under the revised structure, the FA Cup final will lose its lustre as the traditional English curtain-call. Instead it will be rebranded as the amuse-bouche for the final round of Premier League fixtures next May. There is a creeping sense that the entire architecture of the English game is being warped, with the needs of the many negated in an effort to satisfy the interests of the few. At times like this, it is tempting to consider whether the eruption of idealistic outrage at a European Super League achieved anything. For when you look at how cravenly football is sullying its crown jewels to make way for a super-sized Champions League, you realise that a version of that dreaded reality is already here.
 

Cup final should be sacred – but FA too weak to resist Premier League​


The final made perfect sense as domestic season’s climax but now it’s gone. The Premier League can’t let another competition have even the smallest share of glory​

Martin Samuel

Thursday April 18 2024, 5.00pm, The Times

Why? Well, the cynical will presume they know why, and may well be right. To the rest of us, however, the decision to no longer close the domestic season with the FA Cup final is just the latest in a series of wantonly destructive moves.
It tramples on traditions, and our memories of sun-baked days — it was always sunny — and the television on from early morning, following each minute of the build-up from breakfast at the team hotels, to the coaches inching through the crowds, Twin Towers in the distance, anticipation building to fever pitch.
But that’s a myth, of course. Throughout what we now regard as the good old days, the FA Cup final wasn’t always the conclusion of the season. In 1976, for instance, when Southampton defeated Manchester United, both the title race and relegation issues were still undecided. The next Tuesday, Liverpool beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-1, to win the league and condemn their opponents to the second tier.



That the league season should end, guaranteed, on the same Sunday in May was an idea that came in with significant TV money. The broadcasters wanted a finale, and the Premier League delivered. Before then, random cup replays and postponements — more frequent before undersoil heating became widespread — would often mean the league campaign was brought to a stuttering halt, odd matches picked off after the official season’s end. It was certainly not uncommon for games to be concluded after the Wembley showpiece.
So, really, modern football should have made it easier to preserve a special place in the calendar for the FA Cup final. Yet now it’s gone. The Premier League cannot let another competition have even the smallest share of football’s glory. The penultimate weekend will be for the cup final, and the league gets a last Super Sunday all of its own.

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No matter that over 38 games the identity of winners and losers is often already settled, with little to be decided. No matter that the beauty of the FA Cup, now we have moved beyond final replays, is that there will be a victor, and a trophy, that very day. The Premier League does not share, no matter its dominance. And the FA is too weak to resist it.
● FA Cup replays scrapped and final before end of league season
The statement read like a Premier League press release, extolling the generosity of the English game’s blue-riband competition. And the Premier League does provide, certainly when compared with its rivals beyond these shores. Yet this is not about mere capital. It is about allowing other areas of the game the room to live and breathe.


The FA Cup final made perfect sense as the domestic season’s climax. After another round of fixtures, with some relevant and others not, lacks the same impact. Some years the league will provide a glorious last moment — “Agueroooo!” — but in others it will decide who comes fifth. More entries into European competitions will increasingly undermine this jeopardy, too, over time.
Replays are different. Making each tie its own set piece with a finite conclusion seems an idea that’s time has come. The expansion of the European fixture list has squeezed the calendar beyond recognition, and the financial worth of replays to EFL clubs is unsystematic and overplayed.

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A cup competition should have the same rules for each stage, and the moment the final no longer went to a replay was the beginning of the end for the earlier rounds. Yet the final should have stayed sacred. Sadly, knowing the worth of everything and the value of nothing seems a Premier League speciality these days.
 

Accrington Stanley blast decision to scrap FA Cup replays​

12 hrs ago
ACCRINGTON STANLEY FC

By Dan Barnes.@DanBarnesJournoDigital Sports Reporter
3 Comments

The new format will be in place from next season (Image: PA)



Stanley have said in a statement they are “bitterly disappointed” with the decision to scrap FA Cup replays.

It was announced on Thursday morning that a new agreement with the Premier League will run from next season, with no replays from the first round proper.
The agreement will run for at least six years and will also see all ties played on weekends. It has been introduced “in light of changes to the calendar driven by the expanded UEFA competitions”.
A statement on Stanley’s official website read: “Accrington Stanley are bitterly disappointed and wholeheartedly disapprove of the decision taken by the FA and the Premier League to change the format of the FA Cup and scrap replays from next season.


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“The club was not consulted at any time leading up to the decision, and as far as can be ascertained, neither were all other clubs in the EFL and National League.

Latest: FA Cup replay row intensifies


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“The FA Cup, with its giant-killing history and the opportunity of raising much-needed income when the minnows match up with the Premier League giants, is the world's leading knockout competition, which has now been massively downgraded to pamper to the Premier League massive.
“The decision was not even relayed to the local FA Council representative, who was not lobbied on the changes until 15 minutes prior to its general release.
“The total lack of respect for the footballpyramid and its fans for Premier League pieces of silver is there and plain for all to see. Football is for everyone and as such clubs and fans should not be subject to deals done in darkened alleyways between the FA and the Premier League.
“If a case for an independent regulator is required, look no further than the decision taken by the powerhouses in football to the FA Cup. Accrington Stanley condemn the decision wholeheartedly and request that the FA suspend the decision immediately and properly consult with the game's stakeholders.”
 
FA chief executive Mark Bullingham has said: “The new schedule ensures the magic of the Cup is protected and enhanced, while working for the whole of the English game. The longer summer period also allows a much-needed player break before the start of the next season.”


This bloke wants to look for another job ….. methinks .

I don’t think talking bollocks was part of his remit
 
Pompey Yid said:
Stopping replays another fcuk up by our football leaders, simple as that! for so many reasons that we all know about.

Minnow clubs and the excitement, moans n groans, its the FA Cup for fcuks sake, they bring comes to mind!
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It's what schoolboys always used to dream about .... scoring the winning goal in the FA Cup final. You would see it in the school playground every day.
 

Clubs threaten FA Cup boycott as Government demands answers over axed replays​


EFL sides say they would join mass pull-out of competition amid fury over loss of potentially vital paydays as FA branded ‘spineless’



Ben Rumsby ; John Percy and Dominic Penna, Political Correspondent 19 April 2024 • 1:03pm


Clubs are threatening to boycott the FA Cup in protest against the axing of replays after Downing Street demanded answers over a decision that has plunged the Football Association into crisis.
The FA failed on Friday to quell a growing revolt against a deal with the Premier League that has also seen the Cup final lose its traditional place in the calendar, with furious English Football League teams warning they stood ready to withdraw from the competition.
As EFL clubs queued up to issue statements condemning Thursday’s announcement by the FA and Premier League and demanding the decision be reversed pending full consultation, Mark Palios, the chairman of Tranmere Rovers who was FA chief executive between 2003 and 2004, told Telegraph Sport he was ready to back the nuclear option.
“There needs to be further debate,” he said. “But if that was the situation that most of the clubs felt that way, I’d support it.”
Palios’s comments came after the chairman of Accrington Stanley, Andy Holt, led calls for rival teams to unite in fighting back.
“I would support a boycott if enough clubs feel the same,” Holt posted on X after demanding the Premier League sign off on its stalled £900 million football support system before making any “concession” over the future of the Cup.
The boycott threat was compounded by Government intervention courtesy of a spokesman for the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak.
“David and Goliath fixtures are a part of the magic of the Cup,” he said. “We know that replays have been a welcome source of income for smaller clubs throughout the years. These are, however, decisions for the footballing authorities. But clearly it’s incumbent on the FA and Premier League to explain this decision and why it is in the interests of fans.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer went further over what he branded a “wrong decision” to abandon “part of the tradition of the FA Cup”.
The FA was accused of trying to shift “blame” for that decision by the vice-chairman of its own FA Cup committee, Steve Kavanagh, the Millwall chief executive and EFL board member.
Kavanagh also sits on the Professional Game Board (PGB), which the FA claimed had “approved” a calendar that included no Cup replays from the first round due to the relentless expansion of the Champions League and Club World Cup.
He told Telegraph Sport: “It would appear the FA were trying to point the finger of blame at the EFL, which is beyond belief. I am incredulous.
“For the FA to not take responsibility for its own actions, its own agreements, is spineless.”

Tottenham Hotspur's Ricky Villa on the ball with Manchester City's Nicky Reid challenging

Ricky Villa scored a sensational goal in the 1981 FA Cup final replay – now all replays from the first round proper, and not just the final, have been scrapped from next season Credit: Bob Thomas/Getty Images

Replays were sold off and the Cup final moved to the penultimate weekend of the Premier League season in exchange for a £33 million-a-year payment from the Premier League and other concessions over scheduling.
Kavanagh said: “I am actually vice-chairman of the FA Cup committee. I didn’t even get a notification on that committee. No real conversations took place on that committee regarding this.
“The FA are trying to shift the finger of blame – they need to take a long, hard look at themselves and go away and think about whether they absolutely represent the full pyramid.”
Kavanagh claimed Mark Bullingham, the chief executive of the FA, told him clubs would be “happy” to lose replays, despite their abolition removing a potentially lucrative form of broadcast and match-day income for clubs outside the Premier League.
He added: “I made it absolutely clear I didn’t agree with that decision and told him that I didn’t feel clubs would agree.
“The last 24 hours proved I was right and my knowledge of football clearly stretches to the lower reaches – that includes the National League by the way. For them, replays are vital. Vital to what goes on.
“The truth is there were conversations regarding FA Cup replays but it was all part of redistribution – it was a conversation around the calendar.
“Of course, that has been taken away from us as well so we are left empty handed and for the finger of blame to be sent in our direction is utterly bewildering.”

EFL could seek compensation​

The EFL has threatened to seek compensation for the loss of replays and the FA said on Friday it understood the concerns expressed and would be “sharing more details with clubs very shortly to explain the additional revenue opportunities in the early rounds”.
It said discussions over next season’s calendar and scrapping FA Cup replays dated back “well over a year”, insisting “all parties accepted that they could not continue”.
It added the PGB and FA board which “approved” the calendar both included representatives of the EFL.
In response to Downing Street’s demand, it said: “David and Goliath fixtures are still a core part of the magic of the FA Cup draw – the challenge is replays in a congested calendar and we have explained the process behind the decision today.”
Of Kavanagh’s accusations, it said: “The membership of the Professional Game Board is in the public domain and listed on the FA website.”
The EFL said its representatives had challenged the scrapping of replays in the absence of the so-called ‘New Deal For Football’ being agreed.
It added: “Any decisions taken on the calendar involving EFL representatives are in no way an endorsement of the joint deal agreed between the FA and Premier League that imposes changes to the FA Cup competition format in isolation.”
Calling on the FA and Premier League to “re-evaluate their approach to their footballing partnership with the EFL and engage more collaboratively on issues directly affecting our clubs”, it warned: “This latest agreement between the Premier League and the FA, in the absence of financial reform, is just a further example of how the EFL and its clubs are being marginalised in favour of others further up the pyramid and that only serves to threaten the future of the English game.”
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag branded the axing of Cup replays “very sad for the British football culture” but added the outcome was “inevitable”.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said his club’s responsibility was to “protect our players” and that something had to give.

 
The answer from them 2, EtH and the Spanish twat + a couple of other "Big" team coaches says it all....Fcuk the minnow teams! we are only thinking of ourselves, self righteous ummy dumbs.
 
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