The FA Cup, does it matter?

 

Today saw the third round of the English FA Cup, one of the oldest football cup competitions in the world and a competition that has captured the imaginations of football fans for generations. 

Today the team I support, Reading, were knocked out in their first match of this seasons tournament, losing two nil away at Cardiff City. Ordinarily a defeat for Reading puts me in a bad mood for the rest of the weekend but today it didn’t seem to matter as it was the cup not the league. 

It’s a view seemingly shared by not only other fans, but players, managers and chairmen across the country as many teams put out half strength sides, choosing to rest their players for the league campaign. So, when did the FA Cup go from being the highlight of the British footballing calendar to being an afterthought?

 

The FA Cup was first won by the Wanderers in 1872 and is currently held by Portsmouth

 

 

The first ever professional game of football I watched was an FA Cup clash between Reading and Oldham back in 1995 and since that day I’ve seen Reading take on the likes of Southampton, Welling, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur in some amazing matches. 

Sadly the only amazing games I seem to see these days are matches not involving my own team, as lesser sides take on the giants of the game. Even today European Cup finalists Chelsea were held by a team two leagues below them and Hartlepool knocked out Premiership side Stoke. The FA cup is brilliant for giving the Davids of football the chance to take down Goliath, or even losing to Goliath but still pocketing enough cash to see them survive for years to come. 

For me personally though the FA Cup went into a relative coma in 2006, as far as as something to excite me anyway, the year Reading won promotion to the Premiership. Suddenly we weren’t one of the little teams trying to scalp the big boys, we were one of the big boys. Suddenly the idea of playing Liverpool wasn’t exciting, afterall we got to play them twice a year in the league. The thought of going to a grand stadium like Old Trafford didnt eve excite me, we’d get 19 big grounds to go to and our own stadium wasn’t exactly shabby. 

So suddenly the Premier League was the most important thing and to save our team from getting relegated we decided to rest our best players during FA Cup weekends. Such a policy has angered many fans who feel that such a policy devalues the cup and is the very reason nobody gets excited. After reading so many of these rants, I decided to post my own thoughts on the Reading forum i visit 

 

I don’t see why so many people complain about our ‘cup side’ to be honest. The manager obviously feels certain players need a rest or else he wouldn’t rest them would he? He’s not putting out a different team just for the sake of it. 

He obviously has faith in all of these squad guys do come in and do a job or else they wouldn’t be playing for RFC and most of the starting XI today had played in the first team for spells this year, or in years past. 

As for people jumping up and down saying we won’t win anything by playing squad players, do you seriously believe we could win it with a full strength team? We didn’t even win here in the league a few weeks ago (ok we had 10 men but still) Maybe we could focus on trying to win every cup competition we’re in but if Doyle got crocked in a 2-0 defeat in a cup to Cardiff or in a 2-1 win away at Old Trafford to put us into a semi final for that matter would you still back SSC playing a full strength side? The transfer windows have helped make cups an unnecessary risk for managers of sides fighting for promotion.

On an even more simple level, how many times has a side from outside the top ten of the Premier League won the cup in the Premiership era? Try twice and even then it was a Pompy side secure in their Premiership status and then Everton back in 1995 who were still one of the biggest teams in the country. Yes Wimbledon winning the cup was great, so was Southampton et all but football has moved on so much now and any attempts to claim otherwise and we might as well move back to Elm Park…..

As for prestige value? What glory does a cup run get you after a fews days out and the build up? how many of us were sat here before this game saying “OMG we’re playing the cup runners up!!!11!!” How often do you hear Boro fans going on about their two cup final defeats when they got relegated? Have Wycombe or Tranmere kicked on after their long cup runs? how about Leciester who won the Carling cup not once but twice in the last decade where are they now? 

I take more pride in Reading being the biggest points scorers in a single season or pipping teams out over 46 games then being able to fluke our way to a cup semi final/final by pulling off 1 or 2 big results in a season.

Compare those brief moments of cup joy to the months when we thought we might be promoted and then the joy of getting there, the summer afterwards and then the whole of the Premier League experience. You’d honestly take a gamble risking players crucial to our league campaign in cup matches? 

On a personal note some of the greatest Reading games I’ve seen we’re cup games, the wins over Southampton in particular. However I can’t remember many great cup games since we’ve moved to the Madejski. Ironically our recent success means that I don’t sit and wait for the cup draw hoping we get a top team, if anything I want a minnow away.

I do hate the fact that the cup doesn’t mean as much anymore but that has as much to do with the power of the biggest teams then the attitude of teams like Reading. Yes I’d love Reading to win a cup competition but until we reach that level of a stable Premier league side then sorry any cup progress is a bonus. I appreciate that the cup does have some magic for smaller teams but we’d struggle to be a big underdog unless we were playing a European challenging side. 

Back on topic, none of this excuses a pretty poor performance today but it’s not going to ruin my weekend like a 2-0 league defeat might.

 

If you want to read the reactions etc then the link is here  Simply put however many feel that the risk of players getting injured and us missing out on the Premiership is worth it for a decent cup run. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see Reading play at Wembley in a  final but I know that our best chance of doing that long term is to be an established Premiership side. The sad fact is that there are four or five teams who dominate football now, making it unrecognisable from the 70’s and 80’s.

In the FA Cup Finals since the Premier League was formed in 1993, there have been four teams sharing 14 cups, Arsenal (5) Man United (4) Liverpool (2)  Chelsea (3) those same teams have also appeared in another seven finals meaning the same 4 teams have taken two thirds of places in FA Cup Finals. Also since the Premier League was formed in 1993 only two of 32 finalists have been from outside of the top league.

Wembley way on cup final day,is this still what footballing dreams are made of?

 

If you compare this to the previous 16 finals, there were eight winners, Man United (4) Ipswich, Arsenal, West Ham, Spurs (3) Liverpool (3), Coventry and Wimbledon.   Whilst the game had it’s giant’s teams like Coventry, Wimbledom, West Ham and Ipswich proved smaller teams could win the competition. 

I know stats can be used to demonstrate any number of things but I challenge anybody who lived through the 70’s and 80’s to tell me the cup was as predictable then than it is now. 

Sadly the amount of money that the top sides earn mean that if they chose to fully focus on the cups then they would destroy the smaller teams 99/100. In a way the only reason the cup is exciting at all is because the slightly less focused and strong sides put out by the ‘big four’ allows smaller clubs to knock them out. 

So what’s the answer? Many ideas have been put forward. Some suggest the FA could sanction clubs who make more then say 3 unforced changes from their league side the week before. Others propose a seeding system or bringing the big teams in later to ensure they treat the competition more seriously. Some theorise that if the winner of the cup were to get a Champions league place then it would be taken more seriously. 

So what do I think? Well I think it’s fine as it is, the lower clubs still have goliath to aim for whilst the loss of prestige in the FA Cup for the big sides has been balanced out by the ‘glory’ of finishing 7th in the league to make it into Europe. 

So what does anyone else think? Is the FA Cup what it used to be? better or worse?

~ by wimbles on January 3, 2009.