The FA cup is the pinnacle of the English game. Every team from Tottenham to Totting want to and can win it. For some it’s the exhilaration of drawing a team leagues above them, for some it’s about Wembley trips, for some it’s about groundhopping Grimsby vs Gillingham with more on the line. But the well known magic of the cup is being quickly and obviously torn away from us, at the expense of 650+ teams, just to satisfy the richest 1%. Replays mean a lot, and I’ll list what impacts the removal of replays has on the FA cup.
Financially the FA cup can be the difference between teams existence and non existence. It’s about a League One side drawing an EPL side in the 4th round proper as much as it is a Step 4 side getting a Step 1 side in qualifying.
The prospect of a replay increases revenue from TV rights and match day ticket receipts. A lower league side playing at a larger ground than usual, boosts the ticket revenue massively, and they can gain more in 1 cup tie than all league games combined in a season. Knockout football increases eyes on the match, TV and in person. It can mean the team play in front of BBC or ITV cameras, widening the appeal of the club, making the club put in that extra effort for match day.
It can mean an influx of a larger crowd, the prospect of an upset, the prospect of a sold out away end, the prospect of professional players, premier league players, or maybe even world cup winners playing at a ground that you can see from your bedroom – a ground with a soul and purpose. A good case study of this is Brentford in 2005, who were then a League 1 side, £7m in debt.
They drew at the time PL Southampton at Griffin Park. Brentford earned a replay, and all in all their FA Cup run, due to the help of replays, amassed the club over half a million pounds. Now, we have the premier league greed disease among the Bees, as gaffer Thomas Frank has claimed that their shouldn’t be FA cup replays. Why? His and many other clubs millionaire players are ‘too tired’ to play a replay, apparently the schedule is hectic and unsustainable. A few ideas. Premier League teams, specifically ones like Brentford who aren’t good enough to compete in Europe, hardly play any games per season compared to anyone in the EFL or non league.
Premier League players are full time footballers, with genuinely the best facilities in the world, to rest recover and prepare the bodies for 90 minutes of football every 4 days. Non league players are part time plumbers, builders, office workers, with their recovery at the club being a massage gun from another part timer, the physio. They don’t moan about having the privilege of being a footballer for a living. Also premier league clubs, if you don’t want your players to be too knackered for the oh so important league games, over cup ties (which fans would much rather win), use the millions your Saudi princes have in the bank to gain some squad depth. A bright idea is rather than paying £60m on one player, sign 2, for £30m a pop – maybe then you’ll be able to compete against a scaffolder on a 3g pitch.
Rotate your squad properly, then they wont be ‘too tired’. One more way of not having a replay, without kill multiple clubs that you ignore even function, is by not drawing the tie. Tottenham Hotspur should be able to beat Tamworth is 90 minutes, and if you can’t, see a replay as your punishment Ange. I think the main issue with the scrapping of replays to satisfy the premier league bosses who have no idea about football is the fact that it is purely to do with money, not the football.
FA Cup earnings are pennies compared to what these clubs earn through other competitions and revenue sources, which is why is is taken less seriously by clubs each year. Of course the clubs, managers and players dont moan about tiredness when they have friendlys on the other side of the globe immediately after games. In the international break just gone, poor old tired Villa flew to Abu Dhabi to play a friendly, but god forbid they play Accrington Stanley to help them survive another 3 years. Spurs (who denied Tamworth a trip to Englands biggest league ground) played friendlys in Australia 3 (three) days after the premier league season ended in 2024.
No moaning then about being overworked. Why? It made Spurs a hefty amount of money. Would another tie against Tamworth have done so? No. Will games in Oceania consolidate Tottenham’s global appeal, therefore spot as Europe’s elite due to image for the next five years? Absolutely. Would a tie against Tamworth? No. The Australians wouldn’t be bothered about that, they don’t know what a Tamworth is, Spurs don’t want to be ridiculed by armchair fans for drawing against Tamworth, ‘Spurs lose in Sunday League’. Levy wouldn’t like that.
This proves the losing of the soul of once proper clubs like Spurs, and how replays are a microcosm of the selfishness and ignorance of premier league clubs, how they will do everything they can to stay amongst the elite, profit profit profit, and kill deny and let go bust for anyone who remotely tries to prevent it. Replays help a team sustain themselves financially, give a mental day out for the fans and players, a once in a lifetime event. Football is more than just the Premier League. Do better. Bring back replays.
