FA Cup Final 2020 Thread

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Good chance for the team to gel and perform better as a unit. Will be positive for the rest of the season

I'm not so sure.

It seems more like a way of tiring the players out.

Knowing our luck, we'll be playing away in far off corners of the continent with Premier League matches in between and then face a German, Italian or Spanish Champions League reject in the final qualifying round.

:mourshock:
 
EL? Extra revenue?:levylol: no fans in stadiums, way way inferior prize money compared to the CL, teams don't play EL football for the money
That's what I thought, too, until I read this article.

https://theathletic.com/1924616/202...-tottenham-land-80m-europa-swing-on-Woolwich/

North London derby win could help Tottenham land £80m Europa swing on Woolwich

“You know when they talk about six-pointers? Well in the same way, qualifying for the Europa League potentially means making around £30 to £40 million. Or in other words that’s a £60 or £80 million swing when set against the teams that don’t make it.” So explains Dr Rob Wilson, a football finance expert at Sheffield Hallam University.

In effect then, Tottenham qualifying for the Europa League at Woolwich’s expense could have serious financial ramifications, making Sunday’s north London derby win even more significant. Tottenham’s win took them above Woolwich to eighth, and within two points off seventh-placed Sheffield United who, after Manchester City’s European ban was overturned, occupy what is currently the final Europa League spot. For Woolwich, losing the north London derby left them four points off a Europa League place with only three games left. The derby defeat and overturning of City’s ban could end up being a devastating one-two punch for them.

Because for a competition long derided and seen as the unattractive cousin of the Champions League, football’s current financial uncertainty means the Europa has suddenly become worth cosying up to. Spurs, for instance, fear they may lose more than £200 million of revenue in the period from the start of lockdown to June 2021. Woolwich, who are similarly reliant on match-day revenue, face the same kind of difficulties.

The Europa League then could offer something of a lifeline, and in what is essentially a zero-sum game deliver a painful blow to Tottenham’s north London rivals. It should be said as well that set against the reports from France that Serge Aurier’s brother has been shot dead, this pales into insignificance. But the realities of elite-level sport mean that clubs like Tottenham will have to carry on even after such a tragedy.


At the moment, seventh will be enough to qualify for the Europa League, assuming one of Woolwich, Manchester United or Chelsea don’t win the FA Cup and finish outside the top six. Were that to happen, finishing sixth would be required for Tottenham to make it.

As for the financial implications, the numbers mentioned by Dr Wilson reflect Woolwich and Chelsea each earning around £40 million in prize money and TV rights for reaching the final and winning last season’s Europa League respectively. Those figures may change slightly next season but the 2020-21 competition will be part of the same TV cycle so assuming the competition goes ahead as planned it will remain in the same ballpark.


And UEFA are hopeful that the event can proceed next season without interruption or disruption to things like travel. The qualifying rounds have been trimmed to one leg and will take place in August, September and early October, but the plan is to then rattle through the group stages and finish it in mid-December as usual.

Some Spurs supporters have been speculating that, especially with this kind of compressed schedule and with a seventh-placed finish requiring them to play in three qualifying rounds, missing out on the Europa League could be a blessing in disguise. The logic is that the team will benefit from having a full week to prepare for games and avoiding the draining Thursday-Sunday routine. Chelsea’s title win in 2016-17 is generally held up as the paradigm for how not playing in Europe can be a benefit. Do Tottenham really want to be compromising Premier League points by schlepping to Azerbaijan and back in the middle of the week?


But for a number of reasons, it’s a competition Spurs really can’t afford not to be in. Starting with the financials, qualifying could be the difference between them being able to make a signing like Steven Bergwijn and still having a fair bit of loose change, and not. While at the same time preventing Woolwich from qualifying would limit their cash flow to make similar investments. Finishing above Mikel Arteta’s side would also mean a swing of around at least £4 million given that each Premier League position is worth an extra roughly £2 million.

Returning to the Europa League, Dr Wilson says that the equitable nature of the Premier League TV deal means that finding alternative sources of revenue is even more key: “It’s important for a team like Tottenham for their own improvement but also because if they stand still other teams will overtake them,” he says.

“The only two things you can control from a revenue generation perspective outside of the TV deal are whether you qualify for Europe and the size of your stadium, i.e. your match-day spend. Tottenham have already done the match-day spend moving to the new stadium so they’ve got the commercial growth there, even if it’s on hold for the moment. The next natural way then of growing their own profile is through playing in Europe.”

Playing in Europe, even the Europa League, is also a way of keeping the players engaged and making your club more attractive to potential signings. It’s no Champions League but it’s still preferable to not being in Europe at all.

It’s also important for keeping sponsors happy. Tottenham are not understood to have commercial deals that would be at risk were they to miss out on Europe, but being in the Europa League would give them greater leverage when negotiating new deals. And clauses like these do exist — Manchester United are believed to be at risk of losing 30 per cent of their income from Adidas if they fail to qualify for the Champions League for two successive seasons.

“If I was a company wanting to sponsor a big-six club I’d be looking at the Premier League but also that club’s European participation and how far they’re likely to go,” says John Purcell, co-founder of financial analysts Vysyble. “At the same time, that club is likely to set its price based on what they can realistically say they’re going to do in Europe as well.

“A deal might be structured in the sense of, ‘We’ll be your noodle partner come what May but if you do well in Europe we’ll pay you a higher amount per game.‘.

“Also if you’re playing Europa League then you’re in a Sunday and Thursday pattern which is still great exposure, and as a sponsor I would be thinking, ‘Go and get the Europa League’. From a returns perspective, as Chelsea and Woolwich have seen, the revenue of the Europa League is nowhere near the Champions League, and that’s why there’s a mad scramble for the top four or five, but it’s certainly better than nothing.”

The additional match day revenue from Europa League matches, should crowds be allowed to return, would also be a helpful if not astronomical financial boost. Again though these are not revenue streams to be sniffed at when Spurs have hundreds of millions worth of stadium debt to pay off.

“I would love to play in the Europa League. It’s not a competition that I’m in love with or like very, very much to play, but when you cannot play Champions League, you play Europa League.”

After Sunday’s win over Woolwich, Mourinho emphasised the Europa League’s importance from a footballing as well as financial perspective.

There are a number of reasons for this. Principally, winning the competition is a route back to the riches and glory of the Champions League, and if they can finish higher than seventh and avoid the qualifying rounds (Spurs are currently two points behind seventh-placed Sheffield United and three behind sixth-placed Wolves) then they will require 15 matches to return to the promised land of Europe’s top competition. It’s still a slog but almost certainly more attainable than finishing in the Premier League top four next season.

Especially as, generally, big-six Premier League teams have fared very well in the Europa League of late. In the three seasons prior to this, Manchester United won it in 2016-17, Woolwich reached the semi-finals a year later, while last season’s final was contested between Woolwich and Chelsea. It’s no coincidence. Those teams, like Tottenham, possess far greater riches and squad depth relative to almost all non-English sides in the competition. This would give Spurs a very good platform to go deep in next year’s competition.

And for a side that’s not lifted a trophy since 2008, the chance to win some silverware should not be looked down on. Mauricio Pochettino was sometimes criticised for not taking the League Cup and FA Cup seriously enough, so it would seem odd to dismiss a more prestigious trophy, especially one that brings with it the reward of the Champions League.

For Mourinho meanwhile, being able to win a trophy and so quickly achieve something that Pochettino never could would be a huge bonus. “I think it’s a title Tottenham would like to get,” he continued on Sunday. “We should do everything to play in the Europa League next season and we should fight for that.”

On the playing side competing in Europe would also allow Mourinho to give youngsters like Oliver Skipp and Troy Parrott minutes.

Off the pitch, there is the prestige element to consider. Granted, group-stage matches against Anorthosis Famagusta or BATE Borisov are hardly likely to make people sit up and take notice of Spurs, but everything they have done in recent years has been to try and boost their profile. The new stadium, the Amazon documentary, appointing Mourinho — it’s all been geared towards projecting an image of a club that’s heading towards elite status. Winning a European competition would be the most tangible show of intent yet.

In purely economic terms, Dr Wilson and Purcell agree that Spurs are well-run enough to be able to absorb not qualifying for Europe, but that doing so would be extremely beneficial.

While from a playing perspective, as Toby Alderweireld reminded the fanbase on Sunday, there are few things sweeter than getting one over Woolwich. Doing so, potentially to the tune of around £80 million, would surely be a heck of a lot better than the other way around.
 
I'm not so sure.

It seems more like a way of tiring the players out.

Knowing our luck, we'll be playing away in far off corners of the continent with Premier League matches in between and then face a German, Italian or Spanish Champions League reject in the final qualifying round.

:mourshock:
If we cannot beat a 3rd rate team in the final qualifying round ..........
 
That's what I thought, too, until I read this article.


North London derby win could help Tottenham land £80m Europa swing on Woolwich

“You know when they talk about six-pointers? Well in the same way, qualifying for the Europa League potentially means making around £30 to £40 million. Or in other words that’s a £60 or £80 million swing when set against the teams that don’t make it.” So explains Dr Rob Wilson, a football finance expert at Sheffield Hallam University.

In effect then, Tottenham qualifying for the Europa League at Woolwich’s expense could have serious financial ramifications, making Sunday’s north London derby win even more significant. Tottenham’s win took them above Woolwich to eighth, and within two points off seventh-placed Sheffield United who, after Manchester City’s European ban was overturned, occupy what is currently the final Europa League spot. For Woolwich, losing the north London derby left them four points off a Europa League place with only three games left. The derby defeat and overturning of City’s ban could end up being a devastating one-two punch for them.

Because for a competition long derided and seen as the unattractive cousin of the Champions League, football’s current financial uncertainty means the Europa has suddenly become worth cosying up to. Spurs, for instance, fear they may lose more than £200 million of revenue in the period from the start of lockdown to June 2021. Woolwich, who are similarly reliant on match-day revenue, face the same kind of difficulties.

The Europa League then could offer something of a lifeline, and in what is essentially a zero-sum game deliver a painful blow to Tottenham’s north London rivals. It should be said as well that set against the reports from France that Serge Aurier’s brother has been shot dead, this pales into insignificance. But the realities of elite-level sport mean that clubs like Tottenham will have to carry on even after such a tragedy.


At the moment, seventh will be enough to qualify for the Europa League, assuming one of Woolwich, Manchester United or Chelsea don’t win the FA Cup and finish outside the top six. Were that to happen, finishing sixth would be required for Tottenham to make it.

As for the financial implications, the numbers mentioned by Dr Wilson reflect Woolwich and Chelsea each earning around £40 million in prize money and TV rights for reaching the final and winning last season’s Europa League respectively. Those figures may change slightly next season but the 2020-21 competition will be part of the same TV cycle so assuming the competition goes ahead as planned it will remain in the same ballpark.


And UEFA are hopeful that the event can proceed next season without interruption or disruption to things like travel. The qualifying rounds have been trimmed to one leg and will take place in August, September and early October, but the plan is to then rattle through the group stages and finish it in mid-December as usual.

Some Spurs supporters have been speculating that, especially with this kind of compressed schedule and with a seventh-placed finish requiring them to play in three qualifying rounds, missing out on the Europa League could be a blessing in disguise. The logic is that the team will benefit from having a full week to prepare for games and avoiding the draining Thursday-Sunday routine. Chelsea’s title win in 2016-17 is generally held up as the paradigm for how not playing in Europe can be a benefit. Do Tottenham really want to be compromising Premier League points by schlepping to Azerbaijan and back in the middle of the week?


But for a number of reasons, it’s a competition Spurs really can’t afford not to be in. Starting with the financials, qualifying could be the difference between them being able to make a signing like Steven Bergwijn and still having a fair bit of loose change, and not. While at the same time preventing Woolwich from qualifying would limit their cash flow to make similar investments. Finishing above Mikel Arteta’s side would also mean a swing of around at least £4 million given that each Premier League position is worth an extra roughly £2 million.

Returning to the Europa League, Dr Wilson says that the equitable nature of the Premier League TV deal means that finding alternative sources of revenue is even more key: “It’s important for a team like Tottenham for their own improvement but also because if they stand still other teams will overtake them,” he says.

“The only two things you can control from a revenue generation perspective outside of the TV deal are whether you qualify for Europe and the size of your stadium, i.e. your match-day spend. Tottenham have already done the match-day spend moving to the new stadium so they’ve got the commercial growth there, even if it’s on hold for the moment. The next natural way then of growing their own profile is through playing in Europe.”

Playing in Europe, even the Europa League, is also a way of keeping the players engaged and making your club more attractive to potential signings. It’s no Champions League but it’s still preferable to not being in Europe at all.

It’s also important for keeping sponsors happy. Tottenham are not understood to have commercial deals that would be at risk were they to miss out on Europe, but being in the Europa League would give them greater leverage when negotiating new deals. And clauses like these do exist — Manchester United are believed to be at risk of losing 30 per cent of their income from Adidas if they fail to qualify for the Champions League for two successive seasons.

“If I was a company wanting to sponsor a big-six club I’d be looking at the Premier League but also that club’s European participation and how far they’re likely to go,” says John Purcell, co-founder of financial analysts Vysyble. “At the same time, that club is likely to set its price based on what they can realistically say they’re going to do in Europe as well.

“A deal might be structured in the sense of, ‘We’ll be your noodle partner come what May but if you do well in Europe we’ll pay you a higher amount per game.‘.

“Also if you’re playing Europa League then you’re in a Sunday and Thursday pattern which is still great exposure, and as a sponsor I would be thinking, ‘Go and get the Europa League’. From a returns perspective, as Chelsea and Woolwich have seen, the revenue of the Europa League is nowhere near the Champions League, and that’s why there’s a mad scramble for the top four or five, but it’s certainly better than nothing.”

The additional match day revenue from Europa League matches, should crowds be allowed to return, would also be a helpful if not astronomical financial boost. Again though these are not revenue streams to be sniffed at when Spurs have hundreds of millions worth of stadium debt to pay off.

“I would love to play in the Europa League. It’s not a competition that I’m in love with or like very, very much to play, but when you cannot play Champions League, you play Europa League.”

After Sunday’s win over Woolwich, Mourinho emphasised the Europa League’s importance from a footballing as well as financial perspective.

There are a number of reasons for this. Principally, winning the competition is a route back to the riches and glory of the Champions League, and if they can finish higher than seventh and avoid the qualifying rounds (Spurs are currently two points behind seventh-placed Sheffield United and three behind sixth-placed Wolves) then they will require 15 matches to return to the promised land of Europe’s top competition. It’s still a slog but almost certainly more attainable than finishing in the Premier League top four next season.

Especially as, generally, big-six Premier League teams have fared very well in the Europa League of late. In the three seasons prior to this, Manchester United won it in 2016-17, Woolwich reached the semi-finals a year later, while last season’s final was contested between Woolwich and Chelsea. It’s no coincidence. Those teams, like Tottenham, possess far greater riches and squad depth relative to almost all non-English sides in the competition. This would give Spurs a very good platform to go deep in next year’s competition.

And for a side that’s not lifted a trophy since 2008, the chance to win some silverware should not be looked down on. Mauricio Pochettino was sometimes criticised for not taking the League Cup and FA Cup seriously enough, so it would seem odd to dismiss a more prestigious trophy, especially one that brings with it the reward of the Champions League.

For Mourinho meanwhile, being able to win a trophy and so quickly achieve something that Pochettino never could would be a huge bonus. “I think it’s a title Tottenham would like to get,” he continued on Sunday. “We should do everything to play in the Europa League next season and we should fight for that.”

On the playing side competing in Europe would also allow Mourinho to give youngsters like Oliver Skipp and Troy Parrott minutes.

Off the pitch, there is the prestige element to consider. Granted, group-stage matches against Anorthosis Famagusta or BATE Borisov are hardly likely to make people sit up and take notice of Spurs, but everything they have done in recent years has been to try and boost their profile. The new stadium, the Amazon documentary, appointing Mourinho — it’s all been geared towards projecting an image of a club that’s heading towards elite status. Winning a European competition would be the most tangible show of intent yet.

In purely economic terms, Dr Wilson and Purcell agree that Spurs are well-run enough to be able to absorb not qualifying for Europe, but that doing so would be extremely beneficial.

While from a playing perspective, as Toby Alderweireld reminded the fanbase on Sunday, there are few things sweeter than getting one over Woolwich. Doing so, potentially to the tune of around £80 million, would surely be a heck of a lot better than the other way around.
Is that the short answer?
 
There is no conspiracy, Taylor just forgot he gave Kova a yellow in the first half, otherwise he'd never sent him off there.

Just so fucking unreal that it is ALWAYS Woolwich who gets this kinda luck when it can fuckus over the most...I don't believe in God but surely there's a devil of some sort.
 
Another inferior side win a trophy.

Oh those Pochettino years were such a glorious time for us

If a Poch team ever got the reffing Woolwich got today we likely would have had multiple trophies.

And before anyone says sour grapes, take a look around the internet it is not Spurs fans commenting on the reffing it is pretty much a wide spread fact that it was garabge and the reason for the win.
 
D’ya know what? I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there.

There is no way a ref can be that shit.. Emirates are desperate to see their logo on the winners shirts.
Has to be a conflict of interest in there somewhere🤔....never could understand how it was possibly to sponsor a team in your own competition..🤷‍♂️...

Anyhow that aside, we need to pull our fingers out and start winning some fucking silverware, when an absolute donkey like David Luiz has probably won more trophies than our entire football club has in its history.....Levy just doesn’t get the bit where we endure endless shit from our rivals...and no a sky walk to the top of our stadium doesn’t make up for it....
 
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