EDITORIAL
Run time FA Cup replays have been cut for the benefit of the “big six” –
so it would be refreshing to see someone else win it
Our hope for 2025 is the same as ever. We want to see an event that has only happened three times this century – the FA Cup being won by a team from outside the “big six”. Best of all would be a repeat of 2013 or 2021 when the trophy went to a team that had never won it before, in the second case Leicester City triumphing after four previous defeats.
Five such clubs are in the Premier League this season and at the time of writing three are in the top half. As some Champions League regulars are having a relatively poor time the chances of this year’s cup not being won by one of them look slightly better than usual. The wealthiest clubs can usually progress through the competition by fielding under-strength teams, saving their first 11 for European ties. But the other Premier League sides have often taken the same approach, prioritising winning the league points that ensure they stay up.
Now more of these clubs than usual seem to have been freed from such pressures. Nottingham Forest, FA Cup winners twice, in 1898 and 1959, are the outstanding example: fourth from bottom in 202324, they already had enough points to be safe at the halfway stage this season and may yet finish in the top four.
Forest acquired some new fans both here and abroad in their five or so years as a major force that began with their League title in 1977-78. To this day only two English teams, Liverpool and Manchester United, have been European champions more often. But as happened with other clubs that had successful periods, such as Don Revie’s Leeds United teams of the 1960s and 1970s, the expanded fanbase dwindled away when a decline set in.
Any adult Forest fan will have known more disappointment than success in their time following the team. Some supporters of the major clubs might imagine that they have experienced similar emotions, but failure to qualify for the Champions League bears no comparison to regular relegations (and specifically in Forest’s case, to a home play-off defeat by Yeovil in the third tier).
CO L O R S P O RT
Above Nottingham Forest captain Jack Burkitt lifts the FA Cup in 1959
With Leicester the only recent exception, clubs don’t have short eras of success at the top level now. Instead the wealthiest teams are aiming to ensure that their dominance is continuous by extending the financial gap between themselves and the rest. Shamefully the football authorities continue to find new ways
Shamefully the football authorities continue to find new ways to help them and the FA have obliged by once again messing around with their flagship competition to help them and the FA have obliged by once again messing around with their flagship competition.
Eight years ago they scrapped Cup replays at the quarter-final stage after lobbying from the Champions League clubs who wanted to prioritise European matches. This season, they went further by dropping replays altogether from the first round onwards. Contrary to what the FA claimed, the Football League did not support the decision, saying instead their clubs were being “marginalised in favour of others further up the pyramid”.
The effects were felt lower down too. In the 11 first round matches in November that would have gone to replays, six nonLeague teams – Boreham Wood, Forest Green, Guiseley, Maidenhead, Southend and Weston-super-Mare – were knocked out by League opponents either in extra time or on penalties. Guiseley manager Jamie Pickles estimated his club might have made £50,000 from televised coverage of a home replay with Stevenage and said that the decision had been made for “the benefit of four clubs”.
Although it’s likely that some of the beneficiaries didn’t even notice. As the top clubs are not involved in the cup until January, there is no reason why they would have pushed for changes to the earlier rounds. So it is difficult to see why the FA would be prepared to further alienate the vast majority of their member clubs, unless it is to advance the principle that fixture lists need to be trimmed generally. This a subject we may hear more about soon with some Premier League owners known to be keen on a reduction of their competition to 18 or even 16 clubs.
With the third round yet to be played at the time of writing, we may still see Arsenal winning their eighth FA Cup of the century this year, or Chelsea their seventh. Viewers might even be presented with a third Manchester derby final in a row. But while we can’t hope that the FA Cup could be won by one of the clubs who entered in the first round, it might at least go to one that has had recent experience of taking part at that stage.
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