| Product: |
FA Cup |
| Date: |
23.03.06 (105 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Great history
Disadvantages: Ruined by other interests
For me the FA Cup reached a new low this week, I'm not referring to the dire game last night between Chelsea and Newcastle which helped cure my insomnia but the fact thatfour quarter final games were played over four nights of the week meaning that two teams found themsleves playing only 48 hours after they were playing in the premiership.
There was a ray of hope for the competition though in the fact that both managers chose to field weakened sides on the Saturday showing that at least for them the competition was still very important. When those teams got beat they were attacked in some quarters for their actions however for me it is the FA who should be providing the answers for arranging fixtures in this manner solely for the purposes of TV.
I agree in principle with the reason for moving the games to mid-week to give the England team extra time to prepare for the World Cup but to spread them over four nights just to allow the TV people to show one game a night and thus get their four live games with no alternative on another station is a joke. For me all of the games should have been played over two nights in the middle of the week, their were only ever a couple of the games that needed to be on TV especially as all of the teams are in the Premiership and get plenty of exposure already, in fact so "attractive" is the Charlton / Middlesborough game that it has been relegated to BBC2.
In recent years the FA Cup has seen its reputation tarnished with top clubs often relegating it to their third priority behind the Premiership and Europe and it only rises in importance for them when they either exit Europe or Chelsea get a massive lead in the Premiership. It all started when Man Utd decided not to enter one year as they had to play in some Micky Mouse tournament in South America and since then top teams and even some in lower divisions have not fielded their best players in the early rounds.
I think that this is a real shame as I really enjoy this competition, it used to be one of the few full live games you would get to see before Sky came along.
Lets hope that this year we get a decent final and preferably without the usual suspects in it.
Summary: Great competition but sufferring at the moment.
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