FA cup Fifth Round draw

[Ian Royal]

For a game in January??

Was it January? Even colder.

95/96 season. It was bloody cold in that queue. Think it had been snowing as well, certainly before the game.

Got my ticket before their replay against Sunderland, so I didn't have to queue for even 10 seconds. Didn't Jim and Mick have the heating turned off in Utd's dressing room?

Nogan was so close to putting us 1-0 up. 0-3 was very harsh on us.

[RFCUK]

At least it's a shoe in for tele. I'll still be going, but might reconsider the league game since its looking like £45

The decision to select every Manchester United FA Cup tie for live broadcast has been described as "farcical" by one of the smaller clubs to have missed out in this weekend's fourth round.

Since 2005, when United won 2-0 at Exeter City in a third round replay after the then Conference club had wrung a 0-0 draw from Old Trafford, FA Cup ties played by United have been selected for live broadcast. That run will continue in Saturday evening's game against Fulham at Old Trafford.

When the BBC had the FA Cup rights, the corporation showed United live 18 times between 2005 and 2008, Sky showing United's four other ties. Since ITV won the rights beginning in 2009-10, United have always been chosen for live broadcast.

That run of matches has sent a steady stream of the FA Cup's financial distributions United's way, forming a small part of its £396m income in 2011-12, by far the highest in English football. The fee to each club broadcast live in the fourth round this season is £135,850, less than the weekly wage for one top United player, but gold dust to smaller clubs that have made it this far in the competition.

"When you put it like that it is farcical," said John Harris, the chief executive of Macclesfield Town, who is disappointed the Conference club were not selected for live coverage of their home tie against Wigan Athletic. "When we beat Cardiff City here in the third round, the scenes at our stadium were magnificent and a giant-killing could be on the cards again. No disrespect, but is Manchester United playing Fulham more attractive to a football purist?

"For us, that money, £135,000, would be massive, it would save our season after relegation to the Conference, which was a huge blow. If David Gill [United's chief executive] is feeling generous one morning and wants to divert that money down the A34 to Macclesfield, it would be very welcome."

A United spokesman did not respond to that suggestion but pointed out that the FA Cup broadcasters choose United largely because the club draws a large audience. "We understand the rationale for our games being chosen," he said. "It also allows many more of our fans to see the matches than would otherwise be the case."

The fact is United are a prime draw. ITV pointed to the viewing figures in earlier rounds, when the bitter MK Dons v AFC Wimbledon match attracted a 15% share of viewers; Brighton v Newcastle was watched by 2.1m people, a 21% share, while United's tie away at West Ham United drew 4.9m viewers for a 5.30pm kick-off, 24% of the TV audience.

ITV and ESPN emphasised their commitment to the FA Cup's appealing stories and efforts of lower division clubs. "While Manchester United are clearly always an attractive proposition because of the audience they attract, the scope of our coverage encompasses the full breadth of FA Cup action," an ITV spokesman said.

ESPN pointed out that since beginning their coverage in the 2010-11 season, the US owned broadcaster has shown 69 different clubs live, the large majority from outside the Premier League. "Telling the unique stories of the tournament has always been at the heart of our FA Cup coverage," an ESPN spokesman said. "As a media company, we do have to balance that with commercial aspects."

The FA emphasises that apart from distributions to individual clubs and prize money, its income is spent on the wider development of the game.

Economics underpins United's constant selection, their live matches enabling broadcasters to sell advertising, and pay-TV subscriptions, so boosting the money they are prepared to pay the FA for the rights. ESPN paid a reported £60m over four years for FA Cup coverage after Setanta's collapse; ITV are in the first year of a two-year £90m deal to show FA Cup and England matches.

For all the magic of the competition, if United beat Fulham, it is one of the FA Cup's safest bets that United's match in the next round, whoever they draw, will be live on TV.

[robbieroyal]

How many are we gonna realistically take??

[Rax]

....and therein lies the reason I absolutely detest Manchester United and all they stand for.

That money really should have gone to Macclesfield as the neutral would much rather see that than the likes of Rooney, Evra, Nani et al poncing around like the world owes them a favour. But of course it's a long way from Plymouth to Manchester so the plastic pcnts put the viewing figures up by tuning in.

Utterly despicable - there are no other words.........

[bobby1413]

The negativity on this board astounds me sometimes.

I did want Luton away personally or Leeds home/away, and a couple of other lower league fixtures. Man Utd was not my ideal.

However, everyone is so dismissive about the cup. It's not at all guaranteed we'll lose, and it's a cup game. Reading always seem to put a show on against the bigger clubs and I still have some hope of a good performance and "shock" win - you never know.

If you're all that sure of a loss, then why do you even bother having season tickets?

[Alexander Litvinenko]

....and therein lies the reason I absolutely detest Manchester United and all they stand for.

That money really should have gone to Macclesfield as the neutral would much rather see that than the likes of Rooney, Evra, Nani et al poncing around like the world owes them a favour. But of course it's a long way from Plymouth to Manchester so the plastic pcnts put the viewing figures up by tuning in.

Utterly despicable - there are no other words.........

The neutral football fan, maybe - but the neutral who never goes to matches and only occasionally watches on TV wants to see the biggest clubs and the names they know and read about in the tabloids. And that's a much, much bigger demographic than the match-going fans, many of whom will be at matches anyway that weekend.

Sad but true.

[Ian Royal]

....and therein lies the reason I absolutely detest Manchester United and all they stand for.

That money really should have gone to Macclesfield as the neutral would much rather see that than the likes of Rooney, Evra, Nani et al poncing around like the world owes them a favour. But of course it's a long way from Plymouth to Manchester so the plastic pcnts put the viewing figures up by tuning in.

Utterly despicable - there are no other words.........

Except that isn't born out by viewing figures, unless of course Utd have many times more partisans than there are neutrals. With the demise of Liverpool and to a slightly lesser extent Arsenal, they're really the last of the successful non-noveaux riche big boys with huge support bases.

They're the team that the neutrals want to see.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Nogan was so close to putting us 1-0 up. 0-3 was very harsh on us.

My recolection of that game was that we got absolutely dicked in the 2nd half, should have lost 6 or 7. Roy Keane that day was the best individual performance i saw at Elm Park. Pitch was horrendous.

[Rax]

Maybe I'm just an old romantic then - I'd much rather see a smaller team try a giant killing than Utd - it's supposed to be about the "magic" of the cup and yet the TV companies seem to pander to a club that a few years ago, chose money over the greatest cup competition in the world

As a previous poster sad - rightly - "sad, but true"

[Scutterbucketz]

For a game in January??

Was it January? Even colder.[/quote]

95/96 season. It was bloody cold in that queue. Think it had been snowing as well, certainly before the game.[/quote]

It didn't snow, but it was ridiculously cold. What was the road that the north stand was on? I'll never forget my dad saying to me late on a Sunday night that we should get down there, knowing full well I had school the next day and he had work, because of we didn't we wouldn't get a ticket.

There were about 200 people in front of us when we got there at 9pm and we spent a bitterly cold night queuing up with no comforts at all. No food. No drink. No warmth. I remember crawling under a van at about 5am to try and get a barrier from the cold and then waking up at 7.30am as the white van man was going to work.

I also remember my cranky dad going apeshit as a few of my school mates rolling up and joining the queue a few minute before the ticket office opened.

Just the plain fact that my dad queued up all night too, being the most cynical Reading fan I ever have met, shows how far we've come in recent years.

Lets be honest here, who ever thought an away game to Man Utd would ever be seen as a bad draw?

[RoyalChicagoFC]

::sigh:: As far as fixturemaking goes (and with a nod to the fact that City and Utd are both at home in the Cup --but City are conveniently out of Europe; also, there's no Premier League programme on the weekend of the 16/17, hence no league fixtures in need of rearrangement, nor are there any fixtures in the preceding or following midweek)

Wednesday 13 February Champions League first leg (Utd away)
Thursday 14 Europa League first leg (Chelsea away)
Friday 15 FAC5R
Saturday 16 FAC5R
Sunday 17 FAC5R
Tuesday 19 Champions League first leg (Arsenal home)
Thursday 21 Europa League second leg (Chelsea home)


Leeds, Blackburn, Boro and Leicester have league matches on the Tuesdays both preceding and following (and there's a full Championship programme on the weekend of 16/17 February and on the following Tuesday)

Luton fwiw will have to rearrange their home fixture with Newport County on Friday the 15th and also play within the division on the preceding Tuesday

I'm guessing that the Friday-nighter will go to one of Hudds/Leics v. Wigan; MK v. Barnsley; Luton v. Millwall; or Oldham v. Everton

Arsenal v. Blackburn will go on the Saturday with a 3:00 KO and be featured for global TeeVee, I've got to reckon

City v. Leeds would slot in afterwards at 5:30 or, less likely, as the capper on Sunday

Chelsea away to Boro more or less has to be played on the Sunday --early doors, one presumes, and Boro and Barnsley both might find it to their liking if their league match set for Tuesday the 19th were pushed back by 24 hours

So that'd leave us away at OT at 4:00 on the Sunday, which gives Utd an additional day after they're away to Real on the preceding Wednesday

Yippee

[SPARTA]

Maybe I'm just an old romantic then - I'd much rather see a smaller team try a giant killing than Utd - it's supposed to be about the "magic" of the cup and yet the TV companies seem to pander to a club that a few years ago, chose money over the greatest cup competition in the world

As a previous poster sad - rightly - "sad, but true"

Same. I far more enjoy playing an underdog, home or even better away. United is very underwhelming. Perhaps that represents how far we've come in the last 10 years. I wont be going. I've been twice, and it's a vastly over-rated venue with crap home fans. I've seen us draw twice though, so perhaps should go along.. Tickets will go to general sale, so no need to panic.

[Lower West]

Fulham were charged £45.

Seems as if complaints have been made as Manure supporters were allowed to buy for £40.

Fulham only took around 1,900 supporters.

Seems as if away support is a dying breed. Hardly surprising given the costs of a day out.

[Stuka]

Yeah can't be arsed to travel up for this one but will happily watch on TV should they choose to broadcast it.

[MmmMonsterMunch]

Definitely out for this one. £45 would be scandalous if true!

[AthleticoSpizz]

Half of the first world population prepared to take your seat, apparently

[creative_username_1]

Maybe I'm just an old romantic then - I'd much rather see a smaller team try a giant killing than Utd - it's supposed to be about the "magic" of the cup and yet the TV companies seem to pander to a club that a few years ago, chose money over the greatest cup competition in the world

As a previous poster sad - rightly - "sad, but true"

Giant killer = Game Raisers.

They're capable of playing better but don't have the mentality to. Letting their fans and manager down

[bobbybottler]

Nogan was so close to putting us 1-0 up. 0-3 was very harsh on us.

My recollection of that game was that we got absolutely dicked in the 2nd half, should have lost 6 or 7. Roy Keane that day was the best individual performance i saw at Elm Park. Pitch was horrendous.

TLM - can't recall Keane's performance but I can remember Gilkes sprinting back to make a tackle on Giggs in full flight, Steve Bruce missing a terrible sitter (Andy Cole might have done so as well), but the best bit was Schmiechel's pre-match warm-up of ambling towards the Southbank, getting a gobfull of abuse, grinning about it, turning round round and then repeating the process. He fukcing loved it.

[Ian Royal]

Their third was a total fluke, miss-hit cross from Parker, so that covers the Bruce skyer.

We've got a habit of giving Utd a bit of a game more recently, so this is likely to be a good pick for TV, regardless of Utd always being on. Be nice if we could actually beat them for a change.

[biscuitman]

Fulham only took around 1,900 supporters.

No chance did they take that many. They scanned in and their was thousands of empty seats. Looked like they sold 600.