Revamp the FA Cup, With the old tournament seemingly not considered the big occasion it once was isnt it time for a complete rethink of the whole thing to breath some fresh life into it ? I think a few major changes around how the rounds are organised would not only improve the image of the competition but also help with two other major issues in the game right now; namely the lack of money dripping down into the non-league game and the growing need for younger players at the top end of the game to get some much needed experience in competitive matches. The revamp revolves around cutting the total number of qualifying rounds by removing the byes to later rounds that the biggest of clubs currently enjoy. Taking the last couple of years as an example roughly 760 teams enter the competition, but the lowliest of non-league teams have to play their way through an incredible 6 rounds before they even get the chance to meet a League club and a further two to meet a Man Utd or a Liverpool. This means non-league clubs playing a tie every two weeks from August to December often infront of crowds that barely cover travelling expenses for some teams and prize money being given out to only the winner of each tie. My idea would be to have a regionalised qualifying competition with just two rounds and all 600+ non league teams entering at the first stage. This way a lowly NWCFL team could find itself up against a big Conference side right from the very start. 600+ in QF1 would whittle down to 300+ in QF2. Games in these first two rounds would be played in September and October meaning there would be less of a strain on clubs from step 7,8 & 9 than there currently is and only Conference Prem clubs would suffer playing two earlier rounds than normal. However, the overall prize fund for the qualifying rounds is currently split between the winners of 613 ties. In the newly organised qualifying competition there would only be approx. 500 ties, which means the prize fund can be split up with larger pots going to tie winners than currently do. 164 remaining teams from the Qualifying rounds would enter the First Round Proper in November along with 92 League clubs. This would mean the chance for a step 9 club which has won only 2 previous matches to come up against a massive money-spinning Championship or Premier League tie. For clubs in Leagues 1 and 2 of the football league this would be the same stage that they currently enter. Of course this would mean involving clubs from the top two flights two rounds earlier, but this is where the chance to use their youngsters comes in. All clubs in the top two leagues would be seeded in the first two rounds proper. During these two rounds they would be guaranteed a draw from a non-seeded club that came up from the qualifying rounds. This means managers could feel far more comfortable doing what they already do for some ties in Round 3 and 4 and play their academy stars against teams from 5 and more leagues below them. The 128 winners from Round 1, become 64 winners from Round 2, which takes the competition back to the same number of entries it currently has for Round 3 and beyond in January. Please feel free to tell me the gaping flaws in my hare-brained scheme/mathematics.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 14:04:56 +0000
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