Damned by Association
Words: Tom Reed
Cover Image: Tom Stanworth
(Cray Valley Paper Mills fans at Charlton in the FA Cup. Replay match was a sell-out at Cray Valley Paper Mills)
It’s normal to have to search hard to find an angle on any sort of football governance story, in a country that is backwards in coming forwards in its football activism.
Not so this time, with the industry reaction to the Football Association and Premier League’s joint enterprise on FA Cup reforms.
The term backlash was made for it.
As is so often the case, football finance expert Kieran Maguire of the Price Of Football podcast was one of the first to pull away the mould from the unset jelly of the FA and PL’s statement which said that they had “reached an agreement to strengthen the #EmiratesFACup format and increase support for grassroots football.”
“‘Strengthen the format’ is management speak for scrapping all replays from the first round onwards to allow the elite to make more money” posted Maguire on X and you could almost feel the inboxes of Mark Bullingham, the FA CEO and Richard Masters, the Premier League’s head honcho, filling up by the second.
The scurrying of alarmed PR execs.
Abstract words such as “disgraceful” began to trend on X as news of the plans to do away with FA Cup replays from the First Round Proper of the oldest cup competition in the world began to spread.
Of course, it took mere hours for tenacious types like Against League 3 campaigner Jay Cave to cut through the half-arsed justifications from Bullingham of an “increasingly busy calendar” and the old chestnut “fixture congestion” from Masters for the deeply unpopular changes to the FA Cup.
Indeed, some people were just perplexed why the changes needed to be made from the First Found Proper when Premier Leagues don’t enter till Round Three anyway?
It came almost secondary then that Tranmere Rovers FC, formed 21 years after the Football Association in 1884, called out the FA and Premier League by saying “there was no consultation with Football League clubs, National League clubs or grassroots clubs to whom the competition represents not only their best opportunity to create life-long memories for supporters but also a hugely important source of income. We also understand that FA Council members were not consulted about the changes.”
A host of fellow clubs followed suit in the condemnation, from various levels of the football pyramid, from Eastleigh to Exeter, including Peterborough United, AFC Wimbledon, Accrington Stanley and with the tally likely to rise in the days ahead.
National League South side Farnbrough said they were “horrified” at the FA and Premier League. Wording you’d normally akin to a macabre scene from a detective movie except there was no question this time whodunnit.
Meanwhile, Phil Annets, author of the FA Cup 150 book and host of the FA Cup Factfile account on X, who has dedicated himself to the nurturing of the cup, was unequivocal.
It was audacious for Masters, to sign off the plans, when he is under fire from Everton supporters for some unwise words and outraged at the top tier’s handling of the Toffee’s points penalties but in truth the Premier League’s modus operandi has been clear for years.
More disappointing, is the approach of the Football Association to its own competition and in one fell swoop killing off the potential for another replay strike akin to the gorgeous Ronnie Radford’s 1972 long ranger or the Ricardo Villa 1981 final replay mazy run and finish.
Yet, the Football Association has been quietly making flimsy decisions with solid ramifications for years, from the 1991 Blueprint that talked up the middle classification of the game to the creation of the Premier League in 1992, that it was party to and promptly lost control of.
Accrington Stanley Chairman Andy Holt’s comment that “If anything screams the need for an independent regulator today, it’s this” might have been needless, if back in 1999, the FA went with proposals for an independent regulator forwarded by the Football Task Force, instead of not supporting them. Perhaps they’d still have their replays?
Scars build up over time and emotions swirl around this gnarled 153 year-old cup competition, the envy of the world.
A late in the day statement from the Football Association that the “calendar for next season was approved by the Professional Game Board, which consists of four EFL representatives and four Premier League representatives” seems to have done little to calm fears for a cup competed for by 732 clubs each year.
Terms such as “guardians of the game” count, once upon a time mentioned in the same breath as the Football Association but now can’t be uttered together with a straight face.
Has it all been worth it?
©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition.
Tom Is Terrace Edition Editor and can be found on X: @tomreedwriting
