FA Cup replays are set to be scrapped from next season, with plenty of clubs in the EFL and Non-League condemning the decision.
For one Premier League manager, though, the decision is “much better” for the best teams in England who are competing in European competition, because it will help with fixture congestion and in providing more rest to their poor, knackered players.
Not that EFL clubs have to contend with an extra eight league games a season, more rounds of the FA Cup and, for League One and League Two sides, a whole other competition in the form of the Bristol Street Motors Trophy. Plus, gate receipts and TV money from replays can literally be the difference between some clubs surviving and others going bust – hence the clear dismay highlighted by sides across the country.
Teams like Cray Valley Paper Mills will no longer be able to celebrate securing replays against oppostion like Charlton (Image credit: Getty Images)
But while Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola recognises that issue, his reaction to FA Cup replays being scrapped clearly highlights his, and the Premier League’s, positive point of view.
“I think you know better than me the reason why [the competition] was created,” Guardiola said in his pre-match press conference ahead of the semi-final against Chelsea on Saturday. “It’s for the lower-division sides to have the chance to have big clubs and get money for them. In that sense, it is a problem. It’s a big blow.
“For the big clubs playing in European competitions, it’s much better. We have a tight schedule with lots of games. To find a balance in world football is so difficult.
Guardiola’s comments are an insult to lower-league sides (Image credit: Getty Images)
“I understand why clubs in lower divisions complain and it has been a tradition for many years but with the schedule that we have, playing in European competition and with many players going to the national teams, it is much better.”
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But instead of respecting the oldest club competition in world football, more games are being added to simply serve the elite. The Club World Cup is being expanded to a ludicrous 32-team tournament next summer, for example, while the Premier League cannot even agree a funding deal with the EFL.
Without FA Cup replays, there are even fewer effects of trickle-down economics. The decision only works to serve the elite, as so divisively highlighted by Pep Guardiola.
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