FA Cup changes are another effort by Premier League to undermine the rest of English football - especially the EFL
England's top clubs act like multinational corporations instead of community clubs. It’s not that different than MLS’ attitude towards the Open Cup.
Solidarity is a key organizing principle of football. But more and more we’re seeing the top leagues and clubs globally push back against this. Last week, major changes were made to the FA Cup, including the scrapping of replays (a key revenue mechanism for lower division clubs) and moving the final permanently to BEFORE the end of the Premier League season.
Historically, the FA Cup Final was the “Super Bowl” of English football. The annual curtain closer that marked the start of summer, a day-long festival of British culture that culminated with a free-to-air final at Wembley. It was the curtain-closer on football in the country for a season. Though in fairness, UEFA’s move of the Champions League Final to a Saturday in 2010, hastened the decline of this tradition as either an English club often made the final or it was hosted at Wembley.
This follows events in the United States that were in a similar vein…
After several months of controversy, US Soccer ultimately buckled to MLS’ desire to limit its participation in the US Open Cup, citing fixture congestion caused by a manufactured tournament the league itself manages and keeps all the revenue from.
The Premier League, like MLS, in the United States has a responsibility to the rest of the English football ecosystem, particularly the EFL which contains tiers 2-4 in the English football pyramid. Not only did the Prem not go forward with a new plan to help financially support the rest of football in England, because of the objection of the biggest clubs, but they have pushed even more changes to the FA Cup.
This is a big club problem more than an overall Premier League problem, as most of the other 14 clubs currently in the division know what it's like not to be rolling in revenue. But increasingly those 14 are not a cohesive bloc against the other six. In fact, in the case of revenues down the pyramid it seems several of the 14 sided with the big six.
While the fact that England has a Promotion and Relegation is often cited by those who criticize MLS for its business practices while defending or even supporting the Premier League, the chief organizing principles of this sport are openness and solidarity.
On this front the Premier League is increasingly distant from the rest of English football and is FAILING the game in the country it calls home (though increasingly the Prem likes to represent itself more as a global product than an English one). The Premier League’s increasing arrogance has been aided by an FA that has enabled the league for 32 years since they broke off the Football League.
A frequent push back this past week privately directed at me is that the EFL has been unwilling to make changes to the League Cup. And by not allowing changes to the League Cup, the FA Cup had to absorb these
Why should they?
THEY NEED THAT REVENUE. ESPECIALLY WITH THE PREMIER LEAGUE STALLING ON A PROPER COMMITMENT TO FOOTBALL DOWN THE PYRAMID.
This is no different than the situation with the FA Cup changes. English clubs outside the Premier League NEED the revenue from FA Cup replays.
The reality is the Premier League doesn’t need any of this additional revenue from any cup.
Football clubs are supposed locally-based, community-focused institutions. But increasingly the top clubs in England behave more like global multinational corporations whose HQ just happens to be in one place while their business focuses on another. Perhaps that’s why so many of those clubs don’t care if their ticket prices are so inflated that locals can hardly afford to attend. It’s about being a “global brand” and undermining the rest of the game in England.
The MLS & the Prem often = two sides of the same coin.
Replays were one of the fun things that made the FA Cup a unique competition and differentiated it from all the other cup competitions in the world. I will miss them.
100% agree with you!! I too have almost completely stopped following the EPL, as well as the MLS, turned off by their greed and selfishness.
The silver lining that we can all hope for is if: 1. a non-MLS team wins the Cup. 2. barring that, that the semi-finals or quarterfinals have little MLS representation (e.g. only 1 of 4 teams in the semis, or 2 of 8 in the quarters).
Given all the backdrop, every defeat / exit of ANY of the 8 MLS teams entered will attract outsized attention and publicity and celebration! What a huge unforced error by the MLS!