FA Cup free to air from 2021 | Vital Football

FA Cup free to air from 2021

Well that's a turn up for the books! I thought more and more sport would go behind the paywall. This I guess is the FA's attempt to help reignite the FA Cup and it's a great idea. It's been proven that competitions profiles rise when they are more in the public eye.
 
I really enjoyed the Cup Final last Saturday, a fantastic day out and result for me personally but having watched the game back in full last night, I didn’t realise what a good game it was.

Initially I was chuffed for my own personal payback for Dwight ‘stealing’ Taylor off The Imps, 42 years previously .... but tbh that was tempered by the gracious nature of the Watford fans after the game.

Bringing it back to terrestrial tele will help raise the profile of the competition again I’m sure #MagicOfTheCup ?
 
Norfolk Imp said:
I really enjoyed the Cup Final last Saturday, a fantastic day out and result for me personally but having watched the game back in full last night, I didn’t realise what a good game it was.

Initially I was chuffed for my own personal payback for Dwight ‘stealing’ Taylor off The Imps, 42 years previously .... but tbh that was tempered by the gracious nature of the Watford fans after the game.

Bringing it back to terrestrial tele will help raise the profile of the competition again I’m sure #MagicOfTheCup ?
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Worst cup final I've ever seen. Tragic last half hour. City could hardly celebrate it was so lopsided. And just another win for them. Until financial imbalance at the top end of the game is sorted, neutrals will see this sort of dross time and again. The lack of competitiveness at the top is rank. And astoundingly boring. I used to love cup final day as a kid in the 80s regardless of who was in it. Now, mostly utter rubbish as a top six team with the wealth of a State walks it, literally in the net.
Remember '87 and Coventry, now that was a final. May as well put your money on a Man City treble again next year. And that will make me switch off.
As for free to air footy, I haven't seen a minute of the Champions League. Without all the sycophantic nonsense I would hardly know who was in the final. Another competition I used to love, ruined by greed.
Ah well, UTI.
 
Was hoping BT would put the champions league final on for free on platforms Sky , virgin, free view, etc but no its only on free on bloody youtube not even highlights on normal tv! Two English teams in the final and you can't even watch it , wrong!
Luckily I have samung tv and tablet so can link one to the other.
 
Got to say the FA Cup Final has become one big yawn and once the Haarlem globetrotters of British football are scheduled to be televised then neutrals see it mainly as a non event(not so City fans)

I endorse the comments of Elkimp sadly.........................LACK OF COMPETITIVENESS.
 
devonexlondonimp said:
Got to say the FA Cup Final has become one big yawn and once the Haarlem globetrotters of British football are scheduled to be televised then neutrals see it mainly as a non event(not so City fans)

I endorse the comments of Elkimp sadly.........................LACK OF COMPETITIVENESS.
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I can remember every FA Cup Final of the 70s and name the scorers with no problem whatsoever. It was a big event, it was live on TV and everyone looked forward to it.

I can't tell you who won it last year. I wonder why that is?
 
Scotimp said:
I can remember every FA Cup Final of the 70s and name the scorers with no problem whatsoever. It was a big event, it was live on TV and everyone looked forward to it.

I can't tell you who won it last year. I wonder why that is?
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Me too, but i suspect a big part of that is the amoynt of football on tv these days. Televised games were more memorable back then, now it's just another game.
 
Scotimp said:
I can remember every FA Cup Final of the 70s and name the scorers with no problem whatsoever. It was a big event, it was live on TV and everyone looked forward to it.

I can't tell you who won it last year. I wonder why that is?
Click to expand...

I'm the same too, during the 1970s and 1980s, since the Premier League took over it hasn't been the same.

Although two years ago the mighty Imps lost to the eventual winners and I did watch the final that year.
 
elkimp said:
Worst cup final I've ever seen. Tragic last half hour. City could hardly celebrate it was so lopsided. And just another win for them. Until financial imbalance at the top end of the game is sorted, neutrals will see this sort of dross time and again. The lack of competitiveness at the top is rank. And astoundingly boring. I used to love cup final day as a kid in the 80s regardless of who was in it. Now, mostly utter rubbish as a top six team with the wealth of a State walks it, literally in the net.
Remember '87 and Coventry, now that was a final. May as well put your money on a Man City treble again next year. And that will make me switch off.
As for free to air footy, I haven't seen a minute of the Champions League. Without all the sycophantic nonsense I would hardly know who was in the final. Another competition I used to love, ruined by greed.
Ah well, UTI.
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You’re entitled to your opinion .... but you’re completely wrong :Fingers:
Watford gave it a good go, and were trying to score a goal to give their fans something to cheer instead of parking the bus. Both their centre backs had good games.
Utd & Liverpool spent more than City this past season, it’s just in Guardiola the team are playing the best football this country has EVER seen. Last season Wigan knocked City out, were you complaining then, I doubt it?
As a season ticket at both The Etihad & Sincil Bank plus travelling regularly to European cities for Champions League fixtures, you can bleat if you want about these non-existent in-balances, it makes no odds to me.
 
Norfolk Imp said:
You’re entitled to your opinion .... but you’re completely wrong :Fingers:
Watford gave it a good go, and were trying to score a goal to give their fans something to cheer instead of parking the bus. Both their centre backs had good games.
Utd & Liverpool spent more than City this past season, it’s just in Guardiola the team are playing the best football this country has EVER seen. Last season Wigan knocked City out, were you complaining then, I doubt it?
As a season ticket at both The Etihad & Sincil Bank plus travelling regularly to European cities for Champions League fixtures, you can bleat if you want about these non-existent in-balances, it makes no odds to me.
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Last season (if you could be bothered) you would have seen, for those who forget, another woeful final between two top six teams, and won by another from whom tens upon millions of pounds of Russian money have bought success. Well done.
Non existent balances. Don't make me laugh.
As for Pep, he'd have a Prem B league and a City B team in it like a shot. Not one to care for lower league EFL, let alone grass roots. As long as his boys don't get kicked too much and are allowed to play.
I could go on. At the top level the game has gone. I just hope not forever. Just look around all the top European leagues and see who wins and dominates them. The teams with the biggest spending power are.
 
It doesn't matter now if they do put it all on BBC and ITV, BBC have games anyway and the template is set. All Premier League sides, nearly all Championship teams and even some in L1 play their shadow sides in it right up to quarter finals. The matches themselves are played in half empty stadiums because fans know it's become a second rate competition.

It matters to most lower league and non league sides for obvious reasons, but other than that... it's gone. No attempt at continuing to hype it as "best cup competition in the world" can salvage the brand the F.A. destroyed themselves.he

There's still a place for it but the simple fact that BBC and ITV have got it tells you everything you need to know about its status.
 
SIMJON said:
Me too, but i suspect a big part of that is the amoynt of football on tv these days. Televised games were more memorable back then, now it's just another game.
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That is probably it, and the fact that I was in my formative years could be significant too. Every game was a big game in my childhood, I thought the players were fantastic, George Best was my childhood hero, and it just isn't the same now.

I am talking rubbish, of course. It isn't the same for me now because I am no longer young and naively impressionable. The players of today are still fantastic if you are 10 years old, as I was in the mid-Seventies, and almost certainly better players than they were then. So perhaps the only thing that has really changed is me.
 
Norfolk Imp said:
You’re entitled to your opinion .... but you’re completely wrong :Fingers:
a) Watford gave it a good go, and were trying to score a goal to give their fans something to cheer...

b) Both their centre backs had good games.

c) Guardiola the team are playing the best football this country has EVER seen.

d) As a season ticket at both The Etihad & Sincil Bank plus travelling regularly to European cities for Champions League fixtures...
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Sorry for this Norfolk, please believe this is nothing personal.

a) Watford were terrible and were hopelessly, completely and embarrassingly outclassed in every way. Most glaringly, they were outclassed in terms of budget.

b) No, they were absolutely terrible comparatively and conceded six goals; they could have conceded twelve or fifteen, the gulf was catastrophic. It was by a huge margin the worst FA Cup Final I have seen in 54 years, and that was not Watford's fault.

c) I agree with you. But Manchester City is not an English football club and hasn't been for the best part of a decade. That alters the perspective somewhat.

d) So you are essentially a Manchester City fan, then?
 
elkimp said:
As for Pep, he'd have a Prem B league and a City B team in it like a shot. Not one to care for lower league EFL, let alone grass roots.
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He has already stated his views on this, and has nailed his true colours to a very public mast on multiple occasions. He repeatedly lies about the success of Spanish B teams, their attendances and everything else, hoping that we are none the wiser. Some of us are.
 
Brendan Bradley said:
It doesn't matter now if they do put it all on BBC and ITV, BBC have games anyway and the template is set. All Premier League sides, nearly all Championship teams and even some in L1 play their shadow sides in it right up to quarter finals. The matches themselves are played in half empty stadiums because fans know it's become a second rate competition.

It matters to most lower league and non league sides for obvious reasons, but other than that... it's gone. No attempt at continuing to hype it as "best cup competition in the world" can salvage the brand the F.A. destroyed themselves.

There's still a place for it but the simple fact that BBC and ITV have got it tells you everything you need to know about its status.
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If they multiplied FA Cup prize money to a level comparative with the Premier League, the competition would suddenly be important again. Funny, that.

I haven't checked this, but I wonder what the bids for the FA Cup rights were, relative to those offered for the Premier League?
 
elkimp said:
Worst cup final I've ever seen. Tragic last half hour. City could hardly celebrate it was so lopsided. And just another win for them. Until financial imbalance at the top end of the game is sorted, neutrals will see this sort of dross time and again. The lack of competitiveness at the top is rank. And astoundingly boring. I used to love cup final day as a kid in the 80s regardless of who was in it. Now, mostly utter rubbish as a top six team with the wealth of a State walks it, literally in the net.
Remember '87 and Coventry, now that was a final. May as well put your money on a Man City treble again next year. And that will make me switch off.
As for free to air footy, I haven't seen a minute of the Champions League. Without all the sycophantic nonsense I would hardly know who was in the final. Another competition I used to love, ruined by greed.
Ah well, UTI.
Click to expand...
elkimp said:
Worst cup final I've ever seen. Tragic last half hour. City could hardly celebrate it was so lopsided. And just another win for them. Until financial imbalance at the top end of the game is sorted, neutrals will see this sort of dross time and again. The lack of competitiveness at the top is rank. And astoundingly boring. I used to love cup final day as a kid in the 80s regardless of who was in it. Now, mostly utter rubbish as a top six team with the wealth of a State walks it, literally in the net.
Remember '87 and Coventry, now that was a final. May as well put your money on a Man City treble again next year. And that will make me switch off.
As for free to air footy, I haven't seen a minute of the Champions League. Without all the sycophantic nonsense I would hardly know who was in the final. Another competition I used to love, ruined by greed.
Ah well, UTI.
Click to expand...
I had the pleasure of meeting John Sillett in January, I said to him that that was one of the most engaging cup finals ever. It felt important back then. I suppose the cup final was one of only a few games actually broadcast live back then, and so was even more anticipated
 
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