T.V. and radio used to spend the whole day building up to the 3 o'clock kick off - we'd catch up with the teams having breakfast, getting on the team coach, Keith Chegwin would host silly games of supporters of the two teams playing against each other, there'd be the F.A. Cup final songs. Even my mother, a fervent opponent of sport on television, would watch and, on occasions, even wear a rosette!
The F.A. Cup final would transcend football. It was more than just 90 minutes of sport, it was a social event - a national event.
But, in recent years, the F.A. has done its best to kill the F.A. Cup final.
It's been a long slow death but the F.A. Cup is close to the end. It needs to be saved from the F.A... and from television schedulers.
I guess the first nail in the coffin was the play offs. This meant that the domestic season, even though it was just in the lower leagues, went on beyond the natural end of season, and meant that the F.A. Cup final couldn't be the last match of the season.
Then the F.A. decided to remove the possibility of a replay in the final (and semi-final?). Yes, I know the players and managers complain about how many games are played in a season but if they were truly concerned about burnout they wouldn't take their teams on long far eastern tours pre-season, or would agree to reduce the number of teams in the league and, consequently, the number of fixtures.
Sure, if the score is level after extra time in a replay then a penalty shoot out makes sense, but not at the first time of asking. There haven't been many F.A. Cup final replays but that is no reason to stop them happening in the future.
Let's not forget the year that Manchester United were given a bye to the 4th round to enable them to play in the utterly futile World Club Championship.
For the last few years the F.A. Cup final has been a week before the end of the Premier League season. The F.A.'s logic was that wanted the Premier League to be the biggest trophy, the one that counted. Of course, in reality, the league has often been won and most issues done and dusted well before the final weekend, leaving dead rubbers and pointless fixtures as the grand climax to the season.
This season, not only are there Premier League fixtures tomorrow but there's one today - on the same day as the F.A. Cup final (though, admittedly, a few hours earlier). And if you support a League One or League Two side, and go to watch them play this afternoon, the chances are you won't be able to get to a television in time to see very much of the F.A. Cup final.
Then the F.A. decided that the semi-finals would be held at Wembley. It started back in the '90s when Arsenal drew Spurs in the semi-final but is now, apparently, the norm. It should ONLY be the final that's held at Wembley. That's what makes it special. If the semi-finals are held there, why not the quarter finals too? Why not selected matches from the third round?
This year, things were worse because one semi-final was Liverpool vs. Everton. So all the fans travelled down from Merseyside to London (around 225 miles) instead of the match being hosted at the neutral ground of, say, Old Trafford (just 34 miles away). It was an imbecilic decision that brought the game into disrepute and, of course, created a mammoth carbon footprint.
I don't think the years that the F.A. Cup final took place in Cardiff, at the Millennium Stadium (while the new Wembley was built) helped much either. Yes, the Millennium Stadium is a tremendous stadium, fans seemed to like it, but in FIFA and UEFA terms, it is in a foreign country. They may as well have held it at Hampden, or Stade de France, or at the Yankee Stadium in New York!
Playing the F.A. Cup out of the F.A.'s domain took away some of its significance. It dulled the silverware and made lifting the trophy less important.
This year, the F.A., in it's infinite wisdom, has bowed to pressure from television broadcasters and moved the F.A. Cup final from its tradition 3 o'clock k kick off to a 5.15 kick off. 5.15?! WTF?! This is simply nonsensical. Rarely do I find mysf agreeing with Akex Ferguson, but he has spoken out about this saying that the oldest cup competition in the world (it started in 1871) should be saved from the whims and fancies if television schedulers. As far as I am concerned this, alone, is a good enough reason to stop ITV having the broadcasting rights to the F.A. Cup ever again.
This year Chelsea play Liverpool in the final and then, on Tuesday, they'll play each other again in the Premier League totally belittling the final and making a mockery of footballing history.
Teams, of course, have increasingly taken the F.A. Cup less seriously too. It's not worth as much financially, as achieving a higher league position due to the way television money is paid out, and so "squad rotation" has meant several top sides, serious contenders for the trophy, have fielded heavily weakened sides in early rounds. Thankfully, the situation hasn't got as bad as the League Cup whi h is now a discredited and Mickey Mouse trophy. It is time that the League Cup was scrapped or, at the very least, the European place given to its winners was removed.
The F.A. Cup should be the F.A.'s crowning glory. It helped to bring football to the world, but, I suggest, it is no longer safe to be left in the hands of the F.A. Something needs to be done to rejuvenate this great, world-famous trophy and put it back at it's rightful place as the climax of the football season.
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