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The Football Association (FA) and the Premier League have agreed to cancel FA Cup replays from the first round onwards. An announcement regarding the tournament changes happened on Thursday as part of a new six-year deal between the two sides. The change will launch ahead of the 2024/25 season.
The FA Cup currently has no replays in place beginning in the fifth round. Historically, the FA schedules replays if the competing clubs finish a match with a level scoreline. Instead of going to extra time, and potentially penalty kicks, the teams face off again at a later date. Whichever club hosted the previous matchup would then travel to the opposing side in the second leg.
The joint decision, according to the FA, ultimately comes down to FIFA and UEFA increasing their schedules. FIFA previously announced that they are expanding both the World Cup and the Club World Cup competitions. UEFA also recently launched the third-tiered Europa Conference League in 2021.
Big teams have scheduling headaches, but smaller clubs rely on current FA Cup format
The decision to end FA Cup replays from the start of the competition has certainly divided fans of the sport. On one hand, many soccer supporters believe that FIFA and UEFA are creating player burnout and additional injuries by expanding their competitions. Players also regularly criticize the governing bodies for putting revenue over the safety of the ones actually on the pitch.
The seemingly best-case scenario to combat fixture congestion, while keeping the FA Cup intact, would have been to scrap pointless international fixtures. FIFA, however, has no current plans to do this and protect their players.
A majority of these players to feature in FIFA and UEFA tournaments generally come from big clubs. As a result, these major teams will benefit from completely axing replays in the FA Cup. Nevertheless, smaller clubs will suffer due to the deal.
The FA Cup is a massive way for lower-level teams to make…
Source link : https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/scrapping-fa-cup-replays-financially-hurts-lower-level-clubs/
Author : Chris Moore
Publish date : 2024-04-18 16:14:22
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