FA Cup & Carabao Cup changes for 20/21.

[SpiderSpurs]

FA Cup replays scrapped for 2020-21 season and Carabao Cup semi-finals reduced to one leg

• 4 minutes ago

There will be no FA Cup replays during the 2020-21 season to "ease pressure" on the football calendar.

The competition will start with the extra preliminary around on 1 September and the final is due to be played at Wembley Stadium on 15 May 2021.

It has also been announced the Carabao Cup semi-finals will be one-legged.

The first round is scheduled for 5 September, while the next three rounds will be played on consecutive midweek dates from 15-16 September.

Fixtures for the 2020-21 English Football League (EFL) season will be released on 21 August with the Championship, League One and League Two all scheduled to start on 12 September.

BBC Sport understands Premier League fixtures will be announced next week.

FA Cup prize money has been halved from 2019-20 because of the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The winners will receive £1.8m, down from £3.6m last season, in line with the 2017-18 campaign.

The draws for the FA Cup extra preliminary and preliminary rounds, and the EFL Cup first round, will be made on 18 August.

The EFL Cup final will take place at Wembley on 28 February 2021.

The EFL Trophy will start on 8-9 September with the Wembley final on 14 March.

No FA Cup replays in 2020-21 season

There will be no FA Cup replays during the 2020-21 season, while the EFL Cup semi-finals will be reduced to one leg.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[FightingIllini]

Long overdue in both cases.

Now, if you really want to kick it up a notch, bracket the last 64 like the NCAA tournament and have people fill out brackets in office pools like in the US. I am convinced the FA Cup would rocket back to prominence if they did this.

 

[SpiderSpurs]

Long overdue in both cases.

Now, if you really want to kick it up a notch, bracket the last 64 like the NCAA tournament and have people fill out brackets in office pools like in the US. I am convinced the FA Cup would rocket back to prominence if they did this.

Eh?

 

[Tottenham Sean]

Long overdue in both cases.

Now, if you really want to kick it up a notch, bracket the last 64 like the NCAA tournament and have people fill out brackets in office pools like in the US. I am convinced the FA Cup would rocket back to prominence if they did this.

Yeah,you're going to have to translate that one i'm afraid!

Is it like sweep stake in the grand national?

 

[FightingIllini]

Yeah,you're going to have to translate that one i'm afraid!

So, college basketball in the US is a popular, but still fairly minor and provincial sport during the normal season. It's less popular than college football and the popularity is more centered around a handful of big programs.

But the 64-team single elimination championship tournament that happens every March is one of the biggest, most popular TV events, sporting or otherwise, in the entire country. A multibillion dollar enterprise.

The reason is that it is massively popular for sports fans and non sports fans alike to enter into pools in which they select who is going to win all the games, and whoever gets the most right wins the pooled money. The games are all bracketed ahead of time and the teams are seeded by strength so there are opportunities for big upsets all along the way, with the big matchups separated until the later rounds.

They look like so:

EVERYONE does this. From sports nuts to grannies and everyone in between. Every office does this, every group of friends does this, and it makes the games (which are great TV in their own right) must-see events that everyone gets an emotional and financial stake in whether or not they follow college basketball at all.

I know English people and England relatively well. I am dead certain this would be massively popular if these were handed out when the FA Cup reached this stage.

 

[SpiderSpurs]

I know English people and England relatively well. I am dead certain this would be massively popular if these were handed out when the FA Cup reached this stage.

I don't think you know us as well as you think you do.

Football is tribal, whether us fans admit that or not!

 

[FightingIllini]

I don't think you know us as well as you think you do.

Football is tribal, whether us fans admit that or not!

Oh people pick their own teams to win the tournament all the time.

But if you want to win the money....

I mean shit, sports betting in general is WAY bigger in the UK than US.

 

[Biff]

Whole beauty of the FA Cup is in the randomness of the draw.

 

[FightingIllini]

Whole beauty of the FA Cup is in the randomness of the draw.

I think the random draw is really cool. I wish people cared more about the cups. But they don't.

Giving people a person stake in games not involving their own team would change that. NFL fantasy football is another perfect example of that.

 

[Biff]

As for the replays, sensible this year but can't really see them returning after sadly. They've been phasing them back gradually in the past 20 years or so; earlier and earlier in the rounds.

Before my time but there are some stories of endless replays?! Think there games replayed 6 times in some cases. Woolwich v Liverpool semi final one year had 3 replays. Mental.

Always thought the 2nd legged league cup semi final was odd but a nice quirk.

 

[Biff]

I think the random draw is really cool. I wish people cared more about the cups. But they don't.

Giving people a person stake in games not involving their own team would change that. NFL fantasy football is another perfect example of that.

FA Cup third round draw day remains a highlight for many. Waiting to see if Village Academicals get drawn to play Man United etc.

That fixed draw format can stay with Wimbledon Tennis. Not really sure what is has to do with making betting more attractive either!

 

[1chriswaddle]

As for the replays, sensible this year but can't really see them returning after sadly. They've been phasing them back gradually in the past 20 years or so; earlier and earlier in the rounds.

Before my time but there are some stories of endless replays?! Think there games replayed 6 times in some cases. Woolwich v Liverpool semi final one year had 3 replays. Mental.

Always thought the 2nd legged league cup semi final was odd but a nice quirk.

Can’t begin to explain how massive a deal the FA Cup was back in the 1970s when I was a kid.The multiple replays were legendary and the Final truly was the game that stopped the nation.For us of a certain vintage it is heartbreaking to see its significance decline so alarmingly.I think this will be the end of replays full time which will be a real shame.

 

[B-0-Sspurs]

I think the random draw is really cool. I wish people cared more about the cups. But they don't.

Giving people a person stake in games not involving their own team would change that. NFL fantasy football is another perfect example of that.

If the fa cup winners were given a champions league spot then the cup would become important again.

Never going to happen though.

 

[FightingIllini]

If the fa cup winners were given a champions league spot then the cup would become important again.

Never going to happen though.

It could. The FA is free to do that whenever they like.

I was skeptical about the effect that would have on the Europa League, but it has done more than I expected.

Football fans should do more to advocate for the cups, instead of just blithely observing that their club is forced into zombie-like pursuit of revenue and is therefore making a rational decision by dismissing the cups. Change the financial incentives!

 

[Igula]

If the fa cup winners were given a champions league spot then the cup would become important again.

Never going to happen though.

How do you think that would change things?

I guess last year it would mean that Woolwich get CL, but do you think they would have tried harder?

Liverpool was already guaranteed CL football by the time they mailed it in so hard to see how they would have cared more. City made the SF and also had CL guaranteed so not sure they would have tried any harder. Chelsea made the final so not sure they could have given more of an effort. United made the semi's and lost to Chelsea, maybe you could argue that would have them take it more seriously but really losing to Chelsea in the SF isn't exactly shameful.

That maybe leaves us, Leicester, Wolves as teams that could have used it for CL and arguably didn't take it seriously enough. But even if those 3 teams did take it more seriously they could easily have still gone out early.

In most years it is still the big clubs making it to the final, clubs that already have CL wrapped up.

Making the FA Cup a guaranteed CL might make the 4th-7th place teams take it more seriously but even if they do if City want to win they have shown they can and will. So that just makes the FA Cup spot go to another team.

 

[Airfixx]

If the fa cup winners were given a champions league spot then the cup would become important again.

Never going to happen though.

It could. The FA is free to do that whenever they like.

Nah. That would be a Uefa decision to make..... CL is their comp as is EL (which why that got granted a CL spot as part of the prize)... The FA don't have duristiction over the qualification criteria.

I was skeptical about the effect that would have on the Europa League, but it has done more than I expected.

Football fans should do more to advocate for the cups, instead of just blithely observing that their club is forced into zombie-like pursuit of revenue and is therefore making a rational decision by dismissing the cups.

Like what (in practical terms)....?

Change the financial incentives!

In what way?

....Surely just upping the prize money is merely buying into the paper-chase you understandably just criticised?[/quote][/quote]

 

[FightingIllini]

Nah. That would be a Uefa decision to make..... CL is their comp as is EL (which why that got granted a CL spot as part of the prize)... The FA don't have duristiction over the qualification criteria.

My understanding is that associations are free to make whatever changes to the access list they want, and that England does that to give the League Cup winner a Europa League spot over the 6th place team.

Everybody sticks with putting the top four league teams in the CL because their performance is tied to how many spots the leagues continue to get. They don't want to risk an upset cup winner hurting their coefficient.

To the question of what can be done in practical terms about supporting the cups, I think something like the Supporter's Trust is a very concrete way to express that to the powers that be, but more generally I think just making it a part of the chatter. Put it on a message board, call up Talksport, unfurl a banner, do something.

The cups are dying and it sucks. Some of Spurs' greatest achievements have come in massive, dramatic games that would be regarded as "Mickey Mouse" if they happened again today.

 

[Airfixx]

My understanding is that associations are free to make whatever changes to the access list they want, and that England does that to give the League Cup winner a Europa League spot over the 6th place team.

Just reading about; I can't see anything definitive...... It seems the EL spots seem to aheva little flexibility to them give the variying situations with a countries respective domestic cups, but I'd be extremely surprised find Uefa would conceed such control and flexibility over their flagship competition... Particularly given how they cook the co-efficient points and rankings to favour the established 'big names'.

Everybody sticks with putting the top four league teams in the CL because their performance is tied to how many spots the leagues continue to get. They don't want to risk an upset cup winner hurting their coefficient.

...Following from above; you'd also be asking the EPL to concede to the interests of the FA (it's not in the EPL's interested for their clubs to take the domestics more seriously.

I'd be interested to read anything that definitively clears this up, mind.

To the question of what can be done in practical terms about supporting the cups, I think something like the Supporter's Trust is a very concrete way to express that to the powers that be, but more generally I think just making it a part of the chatter. Put it on a message board, call up Talksport, unfurl a banner, do something.

Doesn't that effectively happen to whatever degree though... Let's face; just using this place as a snapshot there's far from a unanimous outlook so it's hard for a supporters group to comprehensively go to bat on just one p.o.v's behalf.

The cups are dying and it sucks. Some of Spurs' greatest achievements have come in massive, dramatic games that would be regarded as "Mickey Mouse" if they happened again today.

I don't disagree, but I think the damage has already been done (I don't think we get to put the genie back into the bottle - What was once a game is now a multi-£billion industry) and these day's all but the richest and well resourced clubs are forced to priorities their efforts towards one competition or another....

Klopp's a perfect example... People have falling over themselves to jerk off over his current Liverpool team yet he's been throwing the domestics since he arrived.

Then more generally look at 3/4s of the EPL for example... Their league business is their bread and butter (how many will honestly risk relegation for a punt at a cup?) and for even a number of those contesting to be regulars in the top 6 places there are pressures which dictate that too much of a drop off in the league is a lot to weigh up against the chance of a cup which mainly only the old skool fans give a shit about.....

Look at the financials in the champo.... A large % of the teams are playing russian-roulette in the name of an EPL spot.....

 

[FightingIllini]

I'd be interested to read anything that definitively clears this up, mind.

Seconded. I swear I've read this before but I cannot find it either.

I don't disagree, but I think the damage has already been done (I don't think we get to put the genie back into the bottle - What was once a game is now a multi-£billion industry) and these day's all but the richest and well resourced clubs are forced to priorities their efforts towards one competition or another....

Yeah you're right, so there's two options.

1. Organically make the FA Cup a more valuable property. I know it seems crazy but I cannot emphasize enough how much money and interest flows to college basketball from those stupid paper bracket forms.

or failing that

2. Have the leadership of the game change the financial incentives.

You're correct to say saving the League Cup is not something that resonates with a lot of fans. But on a more general basis fans HATE the financial centralization of the game into a handful of clubs. I think that latent anger would benefit from a more concrete set of aims to reverse the damage that has been done. Rescuing domestic cups doesn't do all of that work, but I think it would make an obvious part of that platform.

 

[Airfixx]

1. Organically make the FA Cup a more valuable property. I know it seems crazy but I cannot emphasize enough how much money and interest flows to college basketball from those stupid paper bracket forms.

I genuinely have no idea what this means... By all means flesh out your point if you can be arsed.

or failing that

2. Have the leadership of the game change the financial incentives.

Again, bit more meat needed on the bones here.....

....But broadly; ad income and sponsorship of EPL & CL dwarfs anything the FA or Caraboa (FFS!) can muster. I have no idea how you begin to address that as it requires EPL & Eufa to relinquish a huge amount of a pie they already own.