No FA Cup replays and midweek rounds?

[The Sum of the Parts]

F*ck our FA. An incompetent shambles of an organisation with no credibility and which commands zero respect from the fans. Our FA are in the pocket of the greedy big clubs who want all the benefits and none of the responsibility from being at the very top of our game; it is no coincidence that many of these clubs are foreign owned.

Not the FA though, is it?

It's the Premier League clubs who want this - they'll pressurise the FA, but not sure they'd win this one. The "blazers" from the county FAs etc who still hold a certain amount of power will never stand for it!

[royalp-we]

If they did seriously look at it (which they won't) they need to look at the French cup which is now in the 11th? round.

And what round is the English FA cup at? by my calculations that would be 11th round also! just as football didn't start in 1992, the FA cup doesn't start at the "first round proper"

Yes, I do realise that. I live in sunny Sandhurst or 'the fizzers' - who can't get anywhere near the first round proper!

Do calm down. Have a few of these for good measure

[John Smith]

Having an FA Cup weekend is one of the things that I love about the English game.

I also think replays are one of the things which make the Cup special - playing away on a Tuesday night in an unfamiliar ground, big teams going to little teams, the unpredictability of the games and the gung-ho playing style you get when it's heading for extra time.

It's one of the things which gave our game the identity that made it so attractive when the Premier League came into being, and helped forge the reputation of the game here when all of the best players in the world wanted to come here to play in the Premier League.

If we lose that to pander to a league that plays fewer games than all of the other league teams already (not to mention having a £5bn TV deal) it will be a sad day.

MoorgateRoyal popping up with the right answer here, well done.

[No Fixed Abode]

The only thing the FA should be considering is a little more flexibility with clubs competing in Europe by allowing them to bring forward or put back the game by at least 24 hours.

[Maneki Neko]

big clubs already have the squads to cope with extra games.
if they need to they can just play the kids and rest their league players.
don't see the issue. premiere league tarts

[The Sum of the Parts]

FWIW, I'd not be too bothered to lose replays between teams in the same league.

The magic of the cup is all about games between clubs at different levels - those are the replays that need to be sacrosanct!

[The Royal Forester]

The only thing the FA should be considering is a little more flexibility with clubs competing in Europe by allowing them to bring forward or put back the game by at least 24 hours.

But the FA can't can they? If the TV bods want a match, replay or not, on the their station, then the FA has to agree with whatever date is chosen by the TV companies. The FA agreed this to extract a bit more money from the TV deal, so they should have not been so greedy and settled for less money and still had a say in when FA cup matches are played.