What future do we face in football if at the start of every season our immediate concern was with stability? And For what end? Ian Holloway, who for most of the season has been lauded by the national press, stated in the run-up to their relegation decider with Man United that it ‘would be the end of the world’, if Blackpool were relegated (a team with by far the smallest playing budget the Premiership has seen). This complete obsession with the Premiership, has amongst other things, turned the FA cup into such a secondary constituent of the season that even teams in the Championship and League 1 fielded weaker teams this season so as to keep the first team players fresh for upcoming league fixtures.
Try saying all of this to a genuine Man City supporter and they would most probably disagree, that you could understand. For Man City though it was less about the splendour and beauty of the FA Cup and more about trying to eradicate the 35 year wait for silverware. For the Premiership’s elite teams the FA Cup is nothing more than a hindrance to their League campaigns and their quest for European qualification. It’s as if we live in a vicious and depressing cycle where football is no longer about the raw emotions that we associate with a good cup run but of the constant quest for stability and the predictably bland. With the move to an evening kick-off next year nearly all connections with the past splendour of this great English tradition will be broken. This, if anything, says everything you need to know about our game in 2011.
This article was written by Thomas Walters and is courtesy of our partner website thisisfutbol.com. Read the latest news and blogs about European Football at TiF. – ed
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This week it is former LFC WAG Amii Grove!
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i am totally gobsmacked that nobody has had the inteeigence to make that old rogues age an issue, he’s 75 for gooness sake, he will be 79 when his term finishes ? it cant be good or right !
sorry inteligence it should be or nouse, simple common sense or whatever.
Lets be honest, the FA Cup these years is all about the small team upsetting the big team (Orient drawing 1-1 with Arsenal at Brisbane Road for example). Its not about the final anymore. Yes its great for City, but they are in the Champions League next season so that means the runners up (Stoke) get their place in the Europa League. How is that fair? Im a LFC fan and not having a pop at anyone but how is it that you lose a final but still qualify for a tournament that if you lost in the semi finals, you would have to finish 5th in the league.
Fair play to Stoke and I hope they enjoy their European days out, but i dont see the logic. That place should have gone to 6th place.
It is not just the FA Cup. One thing struck me more than anything when Italy won the World Cup in 2006 was although they were rightly ecstatic with their win the celebrations just seemed to me of a team that just won a domestic cup or league title. Past years the winning of the World Cup was something almost ethereal. The World Cup trophy itself had an aura around it that made it seem something slightly above this world. I think the vast amount of money in the game of football has taken away the magic. It has also left so many clubs in a precarious financial position. Some teetering on bankruptcy. Such a shame