Life getting sucked out of football

atypical_boro said:
Given City's recent(ish) form I can understand why they perhaps thought a giant-killing could be on the cards. But yeah it looks a bit silly now.
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Before I start - I’m not and never have been an anti modern football bloke. Move with the times and all that.

I never thought Man City would be anything other than a comfortable home win.

See also Liverpool vs Accrington.

Can’t see Tamworth vs Spurs tomorrow being much of an upset earlier. (You can happily quote me at 4pm tomorrow when Tamworth win on pens. )

But the FA have sold their competition off to TV, they’ve monkeyed with KO times for the foreign audience to a ridiculous extent and to hell with the match going fans. At least the Premier League is largely still played at reasonable KO times on Saturday and Sunday. With Emphasis on the words “largely” and “still”.
 
When I was a kid in the 1960's I, and every other schoolboy could remember the name of every cup winning side and their final opponents since the competition was formed in the 1870's. We also discovered lots of interesting (to us) facts which made the competition more fascinating.
Now those memories have been debased by money and TV
 
Trug said:
When I was a kid in the 1960's I, and every other schoolboy could remember the name of every cup winning side and their final opponents since the competition was formed in the 1870's. We also discovered lots of interesting (to us) facts which made the competition more fascinating.
Now those memories have been debased by money and TV
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I could probably at a push name most of the players in cup finals from 1977 to 1997. Ask me about cup finals post about 2010 and I struggle to remember who was in the final.
 
Trug said:
I have lost all interest in the FA Cup. This round started on Thursday and finishes on Monday. Utter crap.
No replays because the big clubs dictate the rules to suit themselves. Telly has killed our game
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Bizarrely it finishes on Tuesday….god knows why….3 games that day????
 
Aet290204 said:
Before I start - I’m not and never have been an anti modern football bloke. Move with the times and all that.

I never thought Man City would be anything other than a comfortable home win.

See also Liverpool vs Accrington.

Can’t see Tamworth vs Spurs tomorrow being much of an upset earlier. (You can happily quote me at 4pm tomorrow when Tamworth win on pens. )

But the FA have sold their competition off to TV, they’ve monkeyed with KO times for the foreign audience to a ridiculous extent and to hell with the match going fans. At least the Premier League is largely still played at reasonable KO times on Saturday and Sunday. With Emphasis on the words “largely” and “still”.
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At least the Premier League is largely still played at reasonable KO times on Saturday and Sunday. With Emphasis on the words “largely” and “still
I agree with you AET. But the 3-00 kick off gave away supporters a chance to get to the game and back home again using public transport. There is no consideration for fans other than how much can be screwed out of us.
I remember a quote by the Bayern Munich president about 10-12 years ago saying he could let Bayerns fans in for free because the clubs recieves so much money from sponsorship, advertising and TV.
I think the Premiership is the same
 
Trug said:
At least the Premier League is largely still played at reasonable KO times on Saturday and Sunday. With Emphasis on the words “largely” and “still
I agree with you AET. But the 3-00 kick off gave away supporters a chance to get to the game and back home again using public transport. There is no consideration for fans other than how much can be screwed out of us.
I remember a quote by the Bayern Munich president about 10-12 years ago saying he could let Bayerns fans in for free because the clubs recieves so much money from sponsorship, advertising and TV.
I think the Premiership is the same
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It’s interesting.

I can sort of see the logic in moving the FA Cup final in May to a 5pm (or whatever) KO time. It’s a national event - and if moving it from 3pm gives more people chance to watch it on TV all well and good. My first memories of actually sitting down and watching football are the Ricky Villa goal for Spurs, and Brookings header for West Ham.

I just think p155ing about with Third Round weekend is a step too far. For the match going fans in particular. Playing the games over five days with 13 different KO times (or B whatever it is). They’ve lost me.
 
Aet290204 said:
Before I start - I’m not and never have been an anti modern football bloke. Move with the times and all that.

I never thought Man City would be anything other than a comfortable home win.

See also Liverpool vs Accrington.

Can’t see Tamworth vs Spurs tomorrow being much of an upset earlier. (You can happily quote me at 4pm tomorrow when Tamworth win on pens. )

But the FA have sold their competition off to TV, they’ve monkeyed with KO times for the foreign audience to a ridiculous extent and to hell with the match going fans. At least the Premier League is largely still played at reasonable KO times on Saturday and Sunday. With Emphasis on the words “largely” and “still”.
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Well you were obviously correct. But imagine Salford had somehow miraculously pulled off a Ronnie Radford type thing and the game hadn’t been televised. I’m not saying it was ever likely but I just think City’s recent form meant it was at least possible.
 
atypical_boro said:
Well you were obviously correct. But imagine Salford had somehow miraculously pulled off a Ronnie Radford type thing and the game hadn’t been televised. I’m not saying it was ever likely but I just think City’s recent form meant it was at least possible.
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I suppose that’s largely a problem of having to pick the games for TV six weeks in advance.

I mean they could have picked Brentford vs Plymouth. Wayne Rooney struggling at the foot of the Championship. They didn’t. They chose to show Man City…..because they are a much bigger club…..lazy.
 
Davey_C said:
When the FA Cup meant something even if we did have our hearts broken

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That might have been the last time it felt it really, really mattered. Even by the run to the final in 1997 there were plenty both before and afterwards that were saying it was a distraction we could do without and that we shouldn’t bother. I will maintain that this is what really killed it off. The clubs and the fans stopped caring about trying to win it. Or at least, at first, began to care less. It was because of this that it started getting dumped on not the other way round. No amount of kicking off a game at 3 o’clock would have, or will now change that.

Although on the tinkering with the purist vision of the cup front, there is one comment that might be relevant. That tie might well be the last time Boro went to a second replay. Certainly, it’s the last one I remember doing so. Probably the first thing of all the things they dropped to accommodate the mighty Premier League. Now the FA Cup is an outlier in even having extra time in the first match. All the other competitions at every level of the game just goes straight to penalties.
 
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atypical_boro said:
Well you were obviously correct. But imagine Salford had somehow miraculously pulled off a Ronnie Radford type thing and the game hadn’t been televised. I’m not saying it was ever likely but I just think City’s recent form meant it was at least possible.
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The sad but honest reality is that it wouldn’t have made any difference to me, because I didn’t watch it and I wouldn’t have cared. I cared about the Hereford victory over Newcastle not because it was on live TV (it wasn’t) but because it was in a competition that mattered with two first teams playing and both hoping to win. I didn’t care about the Salford/ Manchester result because it wasn’t.
 
The foreign managers have been trying to kill the FA cup for years

Don’t fancy a midweek January trip to Shrewsbury but are willing to travel to Eastern Europe for a CL match.

Scrapping the replays was the final nail in the competitions coffin
 
FishofContemplation said:
That might have been the last time it felt it really, really mattered. Even by the run to the final in 1997 there were plenty both before and afterwards that were saying it was a distraction we could do without and that we shouldn’t bother. I will maintain that this is what really killed it off. The clubs and the fans stopped caring about trying to win it. Or at least, at first, began to care less. It was because of this that it started getting dumped on not the other way round. No amount of kicking off a game at 3 o’clock would have, or will now change that.

Although on the tinkering with the purist vision of the cup front, there is one comment that might be relevant. That tie might well be the last time Boro went to a second replay. Certainly, it’s the last one I remember doing so. Probably the first thing of all the things they dropped to accommodate the mighty Premier League. Now the FA Cup is an outlier in even having extra time in the first match. All the other competitions at every level of the game just goes straight to penalties.
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I think we went to a second replay against Everton again about three years later, but I agree the scrapping of multiple replays and playing semi finals at Wembley was the beginning of the end.

All of those happened around the time of the Premier League being formed in 1992. It’s been a slow decline over around thirty years, perhaps it’s that which makes it more painful to those of us that remember the magic of the cup in the 70s and early 80s.

The first cup final I remember watching was 1976, Southampton beating Man Utd and they’ll be quite a few on here go earlier. I wonder if those who grew up in the 90s and 00s feel equally sad or it’s an older generation thing?
 
You’re just getting older, that’s all. There’ll have been tens of thousands of kids at those 3rd round ties yesterday that were in their absolute element, dreaming of a cup run. They’ll be miserable too in 20-30 years.
 
EuropeTwice said:
The foreign managers have been trying to kill the FA cup for years

Don’t fancy a midweek January trip to Shrewsbury but are willing to travel to Eastern Europe for a CL match.

Scrapping the replays was the final nail in the competitions coffin
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In fairness, very few overseas leagues have a second cup competition and many have fewer league games in general.

The timing of the competition isn't great either, being in the second half of the season with crunch league games to contend (and latter stages of European competitions).

Perhaps scrapping the league cup and moving FA cup earlier in season may help although that would effectively discount non league teams from entering.
 
I had to laugh at Arne Slot on ITV, explaining how he loves the FA cup and how it means so much to him. The commentator asked him something like name his favourite final or favourite FA cup moment and he didn’t have a clue 😂. Ended up saying I know Man Utd won it last year.
 
changingman said:
In fairness, very few overseas leagues have a second cup competition and many have fewer league games in general.

The timing of the competition isn't great either, being in the second half of the season with crunch league games to contend (and latter stages of European competitions).

Perhaps scrapping the league cup and moving FA cup earlier in season may help although that would effectively discount non league teams from entering.
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Obvious solution is let the so called big clubs **** off and play in the Inter Galactic Super League in Saudi, USA or Mars and the rest of us will play League, FA and League Cups as God intended!
 
I watch football to admire the skills on display, the tactics, the effort, the athleticism etc etc

ie the game of football, as a sport

It doesn't always have to be about spectacle, specific teams, trophies, football politics etc etc

As such I'm quite happy watching all sorts of games :)
 
This Tamworth v Spurs game encapsulates the loss of replays diminishing the competition….last year Tamworth would be busting a gut for a replay which financially would change the club….instead labouring towards extra time, penalties or the eventual late Spurs winner. Never mind at least Spurs will be able to fit in another friendly against the barcodes in Australia in May!
 
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