The Famous FA Cup, Sponsored by e.on

Sunday afternoon, 6th January 2008 about 4pm: a teenager football supporter, known to RTG, bemoans the fact that the “traditional” live TV draw has been moved to Monday lunch times. Amongst much spluttering and guffawing, RTG had to give the dear lad a brief history lesson to explain the error in his concepts of history. After the initial hilarity remembering the 90’s, when the then FA secretary, Graham Kelly’s, hesitant presentation of the draw and his round by round sharper, shinier suits and bouffant hair styles, RTG had to explain that the “traditional” date and time of the draw had always been Monday lunch times. The FA had, not unreasonably some years previously, decided that with the advent of live cup ties being screened, they would perform the draw before the afternoon tea time live match. This did have the unfortunate and peculiar consequence of having some teams knowing who their next round opponents would be, before even kicking a ball in the current round. The FA though hoped that the larger audience for the draw would generate more interest in the competition. Unfortunately, it did nothing of the sort.

This weekend’s ties did indeed throw up a host of surprises, upsets and giant killing acts which had the media drooling in the “romance”, “spirit” and “tradition” of the FA Cup. Indeed, no media discussion, whatever the channel, appears to talk about the competition without resorting to the liberal use of these words. The reality is somewhat different. This week’s lead up to the third round had players and management at all levels of the game emphasising that league positions were their top priority. Indeed, Darren Ferguson, manager of League 2 side Peterborough United, neatly side stepped a discussion of a hypothetical “dream” tie against his dad (in the next round, no less), by stating that promotion was his top priority.

This was reflected in ‘A’ teams being selected for ties up and down the country. Many of the so-called surprises became a lot less so when team sheets were scrutinised. Neil Warnock, the Crystal Palace manager even premiered a 15 year old in their tie against Watford. This was also reflected in pretty poor attendances – Manchester United’s tie was around 20% down on their recent league visit to Villa Park. It would appear that no amount of talking up of the competition can arrest its slow decline in the minds of supporters, players and management. The FA, drawing on its tradition card, conjured up black and white images of muddied “giant killers”, crowding around a brick size transistor radio listening out for their next potential victims in the draw, as their answer to arresting the decline. It is going to take a lot more that that.

As RTG had to explain to the teenager, the FA Cup’s decline has been slow but unavoidable. Once, the FA Cup was the only live match that all supporters saw. Every aspect of the final was televised – coverage starting from early morning team breakfasts, through supporters’ trains and coaches, ending with the then obligatory post match glass of milk and interviews with the whole winning team. The kudos of winning the cup was probably greater in the eyes of the general public, than even being league champions. This continued even with the advent of European games in the 60’s, which gave some more live finals (if a British team was involved) – but they were still a rarity. It was only in the late 70’s - early 80’s, when Liverpool supporters, quite rightly, pointed out that European and English Championships were far more laudable achievements than any English cup competitions. The advent of live league games in the 80’s took away much of the live football mystique. Add in the voracious greed and buckets of money available for Premiership and European football in the 90’s and we have the chief reasons for the decline in the oldest football competition in the world. The media and the FA, as usual, woke up to these facts too late. They at first blamed the Big Four, and in particular Manchester United and Arsenal, for selecting below par teams and therefore devaluing the competitive side. Then they blamed sides going for Premiership promotion when they fielded under strength sides – Peter Reid’s Sunderland getting a good media going over, when drawn against Arsenal at Highbury, a few days before a vital Championship clash. Even now, you still see commentators claiming that it is all Manchester United’s fault, for taking part in a FIFA competition instead of playing in the competition which had already started in the untraditional month of December (early December at that!).

No, the sad truth is that the FA Cup’s decline has been a slow descent, over decades, for lots of logical reasons. It is only in the last few years that we in this country have arrived at the same conclusions as those of virtually every other national league in the world. That is, the cup competitions are at best a third priority for the top teams and second best for the rest. It is hard to see how this decline can be arrested, without messing up in other areas. Michel Platini’s suggestion of making a champions’ league slot available to cup winners would be a mess – as discussed before.

Reclaim the Game - The Weekend's

• Hard to know what to make of Joey Barton’s recent release from custody. It seems that Tony Adam’s Sporting Chance organization was quick to give assistance. RTG assumes that this is a step in the right direction for him. He has been given a sporting chance, which his now long serving lag sibling brother would probably jump at. This should be his last chance though.
• Jeff Stelling moment of the weekend, describing Havant and Waterlooville’s equalizer against Swansea: “…you would think that Swansea are getting it all their way, BUT THEY HAVEN'T….”.

Hats off Take a Bow (or not)!

Player of the week, Wayne Rooney - supersub who provided more class and positive play in 20 minutes, than the rest of the Villa and United players could muster in the previous 70 minutes. Swung the tie decisively in United's favour.

Heroes of the week: hard to pick up genuine upsets, but Coventry's demolition of Blackburn (away) and Oldham's humiliation of Everton (again away) are probably the picks of the round. RTG haven't mentioned the non leaguers' creditable draw against high riding League 1 Swansea City. No we Havent and Waterlooville (argh, argh).

Villains of the week: Cardiff City - but only because they ruined the only genuine minnows versus giants story by beating Chasetown, reputedly the lowest ever rated third round team entry.

Cliche of the week - the words romance, tradition, spirit alongside FA Cup, sponsored by e.on.