No more FA Cup replays

I highlighted one situation where you all started crying about the Super League while being obvious to the changes UEFA were proposing to the all 3 European Competitions which really were just as much a locked in system unless you were in a farmers league in Eastern Europe but required more and more pointless matches, the same with FIFA and their club world championships. Or the changes to the International tournaments that don't impact you because no international team would want your crap players.

Or another Project Big picture which while the EFL as an organisation was happy with it as it helped the whole of the EFL, most clubs weren't because you all want more handouts but also the likes of yourselves want to be one of the yo-yo clubs that spend a year or two in the league before getting parachute payments for a few years and then coming back up for a couple.

And what has this resulted in, stronger rules that basically make it illegal for clubs to enter any tournament not sanctioned by the FA/PL and which forces clubs to take part in any competition the PL/FA tells it to so even if the Champions League extends to a proper 36 match league alongside the national league the top clubs will have no choice but to play both. And we are also getting a football regulator which is likely to remove even more of the cards that clubs have against these corrupt, self-imposed governing bodies.

 

How is that the same, do you want to go deep having had to play southern teams who were none are higher than League 1, which takes two matches and which requires both sets of fans to make long journeys, one of them midweek and actually very few turn up so no-one makes any money from it? If it was seeded the smaller clubs would all get a prestige tie and it would cut down the same division matches, especially prem vs prem matches that are the ones that most often go to replays until later in the tournament. And if the top seed always played away it would ensure the big payday for the smaller club which often their own ground wouldn't allow for as much to be made all without them having the costs that almost always come with hosting a big team. The way things are you probably stand as much chance of winning away as you do home because the old advantage of the pitch isn't really there anymore, even how bad your pitch is right now is better than even many of the top sides had prior to the mid 90's and thats remove much of the home advantage for smaller clubs

 

I don't think it needs to just be champions because it would potentially go the other way and be too few matches, especially in some countries with like 18 team top divisions and 1 cup plus lets be honest a cup where you have just 1 team from the top leagues and then having Man City play against the champions of Estonia isn't a great competition, when you have strong leagues you need more of them teams in than the rubbish leagues else its boring BUT certainly going back to an actual knockout would be better but as I've said UEFA don't want that, their total new TV deal is said to be almost 40% higher, their new sponsorship deals the same and thats largely due to the more matches. The clubs are getting 9% more. If they had got the structure they wanted and are most likely to push for before the 3 year deal starting next season is up would have most likely increased it by many times that as it had a lot more games than the Swiss model.

UEFA (and the same with FIFA) want to use the big clubs names to sell TV and Sponsor deals to fill their pockets despite the fact we already see players struggling to stay fit with all the football they are required to play, the in-between season getting shorter and pre-season conditioning often being truncated. It's almost getting to a point where rather than 25 man squads teams need 50 man squads to allow for injuries and just being able to rotate players who are in the red zone

 

First of all I would hazard a guess I've attended more non-league matches than you ever have. I know their struggles and I'm all for more money going down the pyramid but there has to be some quid pro quo to it. There is too much blinkered, self serving through all of football and it usually actually just sees the governing bodies making more and none of it filtering down to where its needed. When something doesn't impact you like the Champions League reforms clubs and fans of those clubs largely aren't even aware of what's going on. They only seem to pay attention when clubs do something in response to being taken advantage of and even then they ignore the catalyst and just blame the big clubs. As football fans even if it doesn't impact your club we should have issues with the increasing cash grab by self-appointed governing bodies like UEFA and FIFA.

And I didn't call you a yo-yo club. But there is a yo-yo club problem with the Premier League and it's seen by many clubs as a valid business strategy and you see clubs wanting to join in on it. When the Premier League started you were able to name 3 subs, if remember rightly you could only bring on 2 and we are now at the point that 5 can come on (or 6 if either team makes a concussion sub) from 9 named. The problem is everytime a change to the subs has been proposed the teams who think they may go down block it saying it gives the top teams an unfair advantage, its just an excuse to give them a negotiation position and either within weeks or by the next season they have come around but only after Parachute payments have gone up. This gives them an unfair advantage in the championship and often see's them come back up within a season or 2. It was the bottom clubs that even voted against concussion subs initially, something thats actually about player safety just so they could get some extra millions in parachute payments. Especially now that clubs that are likely to go down have their players on contracts that reduce on relegation and increase on promotion its a position that if you don't think you can be assured to be top half every season is a good thing to target, if you stay up an extra season its a bonus but if you don't you are quids in and most likely you will be able to hold a vote hostage to get the money increased. And look at Project big picture, it would have helped almost all the EFL clubs, it actually gave a fairer split to L1 & L2 but again EFL clubs were largely against it because either a) they are already benefiting from parachute payments which were going to go away with that money going into the over all pot to be shared or b) They aspired to be one of those yo-yo clubs and the money that went with it.

And I'll stand by the crap players comment, if FIFA introduce their World nations League like they have been proposing, UEFA make the Euros every 2 years and were the World Cup keeps getting bigger and longer (and held in unsuitable places that result in it being moved to December) it largely doesn't impact City as your players are largely from the UK and those nations have big enough pools that a League 2 player isn't getting anywhere near. It might seem harsh but it's the reality.

Think of it this way, if the EFL were to decide with clubs having basiclaly no say that the EFL trophy would be expanded so it stopped being regionalised, you played every team twice and it became 8 groups of 8 and money the clubs got barely increased would you be happy? That's the situation the Premier League clubs have with UEFA and FIFA. And again without any real financial benefit, financial benefit that would somewhat trickle down if they got it but which UEFA/FIFA keep for themselves

 

To be fair mos prem clubs don't schedule post season friendlies. Spurs seem to be the worst offender, they are going to Australia to play Newcastle this summer I believe and I seem to recall Chelsea have a few times in recent seasons but most don't. These should be outlawed though, its ridiculous as players need a rest and some of these players will be going to the Euros, Copa America, Olympics or in rare cases the u17 or u19 Euros this summer or countless other ones in future seasons

Pre-season though there isn't really a problem with going abroad for these, there is usually a fitness benefit going abroad onto of the commercial benefit.

 

Round 3 & 4 currently have them but they are generally between clubs of the same level, Premier League vs Premier League replays are especially common. As I've said before on this thread it has got increasingly rare for teams at a level it makes a really big difference to take it to a replay, to a point where if most clubs L1 and down will be generally hoping for a away tie against a PL club anyway as the PL side will generally get more people into the ground than they could in their ground even with money being spent on temp stands and the pitch isn't the leveller it generally was. And a PL club is as likely to underestimate them at their ground as they are at yours, replays usually see them wake up.

The reality is so many replays are actually unappealing especially when it's then midweek and the financial benefits just aren't very good. Getting it done on the day is better financially for both clubs in most cases