The Premier League is following the MLS in their FA Cup Sabatoge
MLS set the tone...The Premier League followed
On Thursday, April 18th, the English FA and the Premier League agreed to make some changes to the FA Cup about how it is governed and, of course, using these new measures toward the top-flight league's advantage. Here are the parameters the English FA and the Premier League have devised.
From the start of the 2024-25 FA Cup and beyond, all rounds will be played primarily on the weekends. The Fourth Round, Fifth Round, and the Quarterfinals will be exclusive of Premier League Fixtures for the first time. The Premier League will provide up to an additional 33 million English pounds for grassroots football on top of the 100 million pounds it currently gives to good causes each season, but the one issue that everyone below the Premier League is up in arms about is the one subtraction that is creating an uproar.
The elimination of the replay matches if the original tie ends in a draw. So basically, if the original fixture ends in a draw, and the replay needs to be held at the opposition's ground, the lower level side will not get a percentage of the gate to help with their business interests. These are the thoughts of Dorking Wanderers owner Mark James Warren White on the situation at hand.
"LOWER LEAGUE CLUBS ARE RUN BY VOLUNTEERS AND LOCAL SPONSORS AND INDIVIDUALS PUT IN THEIR MONEY TO KEEP THEM ALIVE AND TO KEEP THEM UP AND RUNNING. THE FA CUP GIVES THEM THE OPPORTUNITY FINANCIALLY TO LIGHTEN THE BURDEN AND GIVE THEM GREAT MOMENTS TO IMPROVE THE STADIUMS, TO PUT IN MORE MONEY INTO THE YOUTH SECTION OF THE CLUB, OR WHATEVER IT LOOKS LIKE. IT'S A SIGNIFICANT LOSS.
IT'S ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE PREMIER LEAGUE CONTINUING TO WANT TO DOMINATE THE DECISION-MAKING OF THE FA, AND THEY TALK CRASLEY ABOUT PUTTING MORE REVENUE INTO THE GAME AND JUSTIFY WHAT THEY ARE TAKING AWAY FROM THE LEGACY. THERE'S NO AMOUNT OF MILLIONS THAT THEY CAN PUT INTO FAN EXPERIENCES, THERE'S NO AMOUNT OF MILLIONS THAT WILL LAST A LIFETIME OF RELPAYS GETTING DITCHED, THE TV MONEY THAT THEY GET FROM REPLAYS, THE PRIDE MONEY THEY GET FROM REPLAYS. IT'S A SIGNIFICANT THING AND IT'S DISAPPOINTING
FROM MY PERSONAL POINT OF VIEW, I'M EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED IN THE FA, AND IT SAYS FOR ALL ON THEIR WEBSITE, IN ACTUALLY THIS DECISION THEY HAVE TAKEN, HAS GONE AGAINST THE MINORITY OF THE SITUATION AND HAS GONE AGAINST ALL THE CLUBS ACROSS THE COUNTRY WITH THIS DECISION."
Here is the statement from the EFL on this decision between the Premier League and the English FA.
"The EFL wishes to clarify further its position in respect of yesterday’s Premier League and Football Association bi-lateral announcement over the removal of FA Cup replays and the role of the League’s representatives on the Professional Game Board (PGB).
The agreement which now sees the abolition of replays from the competition format was agreed solely between the Premier League and FA. Ahead of the deal being announced, there was no agreement with the EFL nor was there any formal consultation with EFL Clubs as members of the FA and participants in the competition.
In September 2023, the EFL did initially discuss with Clubs potential changes to the FA Cup format but only as part of a wider and more fundamental change to financial distributions. As is now clear, there has been no movement in this area since September.
This latest agreement between the Premier League and the FA, in the absence of financial reform, is just a further example of how the EFL and its Clubs are being marginalized in favor of others further up the pyramid, and that only serves to threaten the future of the English game.
The EFL today calls on both the Premier League and the FA, as the Governing body, to re-evaluate their approach to their footballing partnership with the EFL and engage more collaboratively on issues directly affecting our Clubs.
A separate issue is the role of the EFL representatives on the Professional Game Board (PGB) in agreeing to the 2024/25 overall fixture calendar. PGB is there to make technical decisions across the game as opposed to key policy decisions such as competition changes or formats.
Any decisions taken on the calendar involving EFL representatives are in no way an endorsement of the joint deal agreed between the FA and Premier League that imposes changes to the FA Cup competition format in isolation.
As part of the discussions, the EFL representatives did challenge the position and were told that Clubs would be comfortable with no replays. They were effectively advised that, as a result, of it being an FA competition, the fixture list needed to be agreed upon as presented. It is also important to note that this matter was not discussed by the FA Cup committee, a separate group that oversees the competition across the professional and national game."
So, has all of this been in the works for a long time? Or, has the Premier League looked at other football/soccer leagues around the world to pull these types of shenanigans? Look no further than the situation we have here with Major League Soccer and US Soccer on what happened to the Open Cup. Congratulations to Don Garber, Nelson Rodriguez, and the hierarchy, running the federation. You have just proven that all eyes were watching what you have done in the Open Cup, and now the Premier League has joined forces with the English FA to make the replays disappear for the next edition of their FA Cup.
The power play of MLS screwing over the USL Leagues, NISA, NPSL, and the Amateur division, while forcing the US soccer federation to bow down to your terms because of the time crunch they had to kick off the 2024 edition of the Open Cup. Then I saw Nelson Rodriguez going on ESPN's Futbol Americas and explaining their side of the story on why they did this, and, of course, the multiple members of the Open Cup Committee stepping down after this interference from MLS to get their way.
While the game has been going on for many years, everyone is still looking at us here in the United States in North America to see what type of situation they will do to help improve the game and adopt it, or to find a loophole somewhere and make the changes against the benefit of the game, and only for themselves. Watch what will happen if two first-division leagues from two different countries now emulate the Leagues Cup, which I hope they won't because there will be plenty of protests from the fans.
Even the Court for the Arbitration of Sport has ruled against preventing the creation of Supr Leagues in Europe, which is why MLS started this entire situation, to begin with. It has been a complete chain reaction against the game and what it truly means to all of us. The natural order of competition, and while there are times when change is good, this type of change is bad for all of us. And what about those who have said on social media that because Pro/Rel is in Europe, this can be overlooked or ignored? This is not a Pro/Rel argument it's the first division looking to exercise their muscles financially and cut everything off from the lower professional and amateur divisions to earn a piece of the pie.
So this is why I hope there will be plenty of board meetings internally at US Soccer to get the Open Cup situation back on track for 2025. Because they must come back to the floor and put their foot down and tell MLS they don't control the ball, they don't pick it up and take it home, they will have (soon) all 27 MLS American clubs conform and participate in the US Open Cup, and that should be the final decision. If not, then all Football Associations should dissolve and no longer be considered the governing bodies of the sport in their proper countries. Just allow the First Division leagues in every country to govern the sport and run rampant all over the pitch.
Hopefully US Soccer has the wherewithal to bring MLS back fully into the Open Cup. I shudder to think of the long range consequences if they don't. If MLS successfully breaks the US Open Cup, I would predict their next move being to break CONCACAF Champions Cup and replacing it with Leagues Cup, which only has two leagues participating in it.
And if you think that can't happen at the confederation level, look at what Asia is doing starting next season breaking the AFC Champions League up into the AFC Champions League Elite and AFC Champions League 2. Only the top few Asian leagues will be sending their top teams to Champions League Elite (Ja[an, Korea, Saudi Arabia, and a few others). The other smaller top domestic leagues will send their Champions to Champions League 2 or the third tier Challenge Cup, restricting access to the top competition. (My wife is from the Philippines and she enjoyed rooting for Kaya Iloilo in this years AFC Champions League.)
An optimistic view is that if US Soccer can figure this out, e.g. slap down MLS and empower lower leagues, this will ensure that the US Open Cup stays vibrant and flourish in perpetuity in a way superior to .the English FA. Our MLS is not yet so dominant and the U.S. doesn't have the vast money flowing into it for "sports-washing", that it becomes an unstoppable force TLDR: good thing MLS provoked the backlash now, rather than 5-10 years from now! Before it has become super powerful and has fully incorporated Liga MX, to form it's own Mega-League!