Huge FA Cup Drama

[@tatsingslippers]

"The digger you deep." - Zealand

[@Randomaccount9470]

"camel that broke the straws back" - Zealand the bloody Legend

[@MadPaperMario]

I don’t get it

[@SamButler22]

The CEO of my club, Bolton, found out about it when it was announced on BBC News. Yet they claim "all parties agreed"

[@daviebananas1735]

To be fair, your CEO is a notorious drunkard.

[@poethalaw]

new lightless dlc pack dropped

[@TKBomber7285]

It feels like this problem could be solved mostly by the system that they use in the early rounds of the Swedish Cup. Home field is given to the lower division club and the bigger team has the ability to buy home field from their opponent. Gate revenues are shared 50/50 no matter which stadium the game is played at.

[@kieronparr3403]

I thought that was awesome when I played in Sweden on FM

[@colorfulmarbles156]

Man that’s amazing! You get home field, the higher team can buy it, either way you make miney

[@KyleTroutner]

The Japanese cup just changed its format from this year to give home field to the lower category team. Not sure about an option to buy though.

[@LG555]

In Switzerland, the Cup also gives homefield to the lower division club.

[@kieronparr3403]

I always bought the option on FM just to share the wealth.

[@Prederick]

I too, enjoy a Digger Deep on various issues and stories.

[@mich2962]

"you'll be watching this on the 19th" me on the 20th in austria:

[@alexbarber3310]

Same here in the uk lol

[@adlilzafri2322]

How are the kangaroos there?

[@tobs7003]

@@adlilzafri2322 dead because there are 0 of them in those Mountains lol

[@poiuytrewq1553]

Get your smoke on early happy 4/20 🍃

[@Diabolos1007]

In India too 😂

[@Braddowski]

So, I spoke to a friend of mine who works for a club (I won't say who for obvious reasons) and it was explained to me like this. Please bear in mind I haven't done my own research to validate this: The PGB is meant to keep the Rules of the Game consistent across the different levels of the game whilst working within the differing demands of different levels of the game. It has discussed things like how VAR should be implemented. The FA has seemingly tried to bypass the FA Cup Committee - who are meant to govern things like prize money and the competition calendar - by saying that the replay decision is a rules change and not a calendar change and putting it through the PGB. The PGB is more of an advisory group than a negotiation group like the FA Cup Committee so, if this is true, it's somewhat cynical from the FA as they knew they'd get a more favourable outcome this way.

[@thelastgreataudit8112]

Zealand: How about no lights at all? Internet: Thanks, I hate it.

[@Mat-gj7lr]

Replays have brought some of the best footballing memories for plenty of lower league fans. It doesn't even have to be getting a replay against a PL team. My team Stockport County; when we were in the national league drew away at Bolton (League One). In the replay we were 2-0 down within 5 mins and 3-1 down at HT. We went on to win the game 5-3 in extra time and have created memories for life for thousands of County fans. Losing games like that would be losing some of the romance of the game!

[@daviebananas1735]

Wouldn’t it have been just as good to win in extra time or penalties without a replay?

[@lordpelagius5078]

Replays are almost always terrie games as the bigger team will usually just put the second team out in the second game

[@Mat-gj7lr]

No we got to take them back to our ground and win in front of our own supporters, not their half empty stadium because a National League team in in the first round of the FA Cup isn't a draw. The main point is that game and that memory wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the replay itself. I also don't care if they put out a second string team it just gives us more chance of causing an upset and progressing even further.

[@daviebananas1735]

@@Mat-gj7lr The whole debate is about the replay being at the BIG teams ground though?

[@DYE239]

Got to think of the trickle down money for other business when a replay happens. Hotels, restaurants, public transport for smaller teams will get a boost when a large club comes to town.

[@daviebananas1735]

Wouldn’t a small club rather have a MUCH better chance of knocking out the big club? ET and penalties at home? Much more chance than an away tie at a bigger team.

[@davit368]

@@daviebananas1735i thought so as well

[@jesterbeats2898]

@@daviebananas1735 But the economics are blown out of proportion as they don't earn as much when a big club comes to town as of the locality and fan interest tends to be super low, so if smaller teams force bigger teams into a replay many of those big club fans will want to go as because they have drawn a lower league team they want to see the reason for that forced draw into their own home ground and the economics also is that smaller the club the smaller the revenue but if you go to the bigger teams home considering that the away team has to catered for. it helps those clubs massively as it aint much but they get a free cash injection from those massive clubs Trinkle economics goes a long ways for these clubs

[@17Se7enteen]

the digger you deep, the holer the large will get.

[@Im_helpless]

Wiser words have never been spoken

[@philip4285]

@@Im_helplessspoken words have never been wiser

[@toby4784]

@@Im_helplessworder wises have never been spoken

[@usr0110lucas]

@@Im_helpless woken spikes have never been weirder

[@p_1945]

this isn't the first that EFL didn't protect lower league club interest as it's happened before with Leicester drama and push the club fight against PL alone in court. (this PL argument really similar between those two scandals too even at least EFL need to defense their authority and interest of the club under them.)

[@alland1241]

The PL think of themselves as Gods, they are about to come down to Earth with a bang with all this MCFC garbage

[@Lost_Pikachu]

Those 3rd and 4th round replay games were huge in eafc rebuilds. Squeaking out a cheeky tie so you could play that harder team in your stadium made the FA Cup special.

[@TheMarslMcFly]

As a German who loves the DFB Pokal I always found the replays incredibly stupid. If a lower League Team manages to draw at home against, say United, sure they get to play another Game at the Old Trafford but away at a Stadium like that it's also way harder to win. That just favors the big Clubs way to much imo. A run like the one we've seen from Saarbrücken or Kaiserslautern this year in the DFB Pokal may not have been possible (I don't have every result of theirs memorised, no idea if they ever went into Extra Time, but you catch my drift) if we had replays here.

[@mariamachida7571]

This is 100% true however because of how FA cup ticket revenue works a league 1 side that draws at home to United and goes to old trafford (or similarly a team like Bath city or City of Manchester that draws to a league 1 side like Pompy and goes to Fratton Park) get an equal split of the revenue. The lack of a replay means either your club gets a death sentence nearly automatically and you don't even have a chance to progress to further rounds for prize money or you give up an insurmountably large amount of money. This could all be solved with a 2 game system or games at a large neutral venue but the lack of a replay and keeping the games at a non-neutral, potentially small, venue is definitely not the move. Again you are 100% right this wouldn't need to be a discussion if they just played matches at a neutral venue of a club at or above the tier of the "bigger" club (in the case of Pompy v United Selhurst, AMX Stadium, or Vitality could host neutral venues) this would disrupt the schedule for these teams technically but also that happens all the time in the FA cup anyways when a grounds is deemed 'unfit' and thus has to be played at a different venue.

[@BlazinBlz]

but the counterpoint, and why clubs and fans are pissed say if....Rochdale, in the National League go on a miracle run, get to the 3rd round and get drawn to play sayyyyy Bristol City in the Championship, they are heavy faves for defeat obviously, but they manage to draw the game, in the current rules, a replay, and say that replay is at Bristol City's home, sure they'll likely be defeated, but the money they get from the ticket revenue from both games would be 2-3x more than they could get by progressing, and that money could fund them pushing for promotion to League 2 which in itself would be more valuable than going to extra time and beating Bristol to progress to the 4th round the money for these clubs is vital, it's a reason the entire pyramid can stay afloat, to scrap it is stupid, shortsighted and absolutely greedy, to prevent upstarts coming up to tangle with the big boys

[@ElEmElEkv13]

@@BlazinBlz If it's all about the money, and not sporting reasons just play the games at the stadium of the club in higher league. Simple. But then lower leagues would be crying that it's unfair sporting advantage for higher league clubs...

[@jesterbeats2898]

@@mariamachida7571 If a smaller team goes to Europe do you understand how that will damage the team itself the whole club will just fold under pressure as the pressures of europe is too much for club like an EFL or Amateur club to handle in today's environment

[@Slvrbuu]

I'll be honest, I didn't know the Premier League wasn't fully a part of the pyramid. If there is anything that exemplifies some of the issues people have had with football, lately, it's that it's increasingly a money sport, rather than a people sport. And it's currently the money that is making the changes, not the people.

[@daviebananas1735]

It very much is a full part of the pyramid. It just has a different governing ruby ti the three leagues below it. It obeys all rules of the English pyramid system.

[@AngryAnt0]

Few things ontop is that the media exposure for these lower league clubs can't be understated. Look at Maidstone this year, how many people knew about them or what their badge looked like before this year? Potentially it could increase their supporter count for the next couple of seasons etc. Aswell as making memories. A lower league team holding a big boy team at home and then going away, those fans (particulary the kids), will never forget that experience of going to say Old Trafford, it inspires them. As a Coventry fan, I hate that they are tinkering with it. The fact that no club below the prem got any say in the matter is horrific. Plus most of the teams in the prem will use a second string to play the first few matches anyway until they get to the later rounds.

[@daviebananas1735]

Maidstone had precisely zero replays in their stunning cup run.

[@laser__unicorn]

I prefer the blue one. Just make it Blue and Orange for that extra youtube influencer flavour.

[@fabsoN42]

green lights or nothing!!!

[@VillaFanDan92]

It's a really difficult thing because fixture congestion is a massive problem, but it shouldn't be the case that 20 teams make the decisions for everyone else. That said, if The FA says no to the Prem, and so Prem teams decide to break away (which is exactly how the Prem was born to begin with between the top division and the rest of the EFL) - then that would be absolutely financially disastrous for the rest of the pyramid because the vast majority of the funding for those teams will disappear.

[@imightbebiased9311]

Let the record state: Zealand, NOT a BBQC.

[@spoder22]

0:24 “we’re moving in a couple of weeks” WE?

[@blackfalcon1324]

I mean this is probably good for fixture congestion, especially in my FM save.

[@camero3266]

Fa cup replays always been part of the competition and yes the consulting is a big thing so are the replays don’t downplay the replays Fa cup replays are loved by so many and it dilutes the competition more

[@bigbadbob1245]

Coming from an Oldham Athletic supporter. In 2013/14, we had to play first and second round replays but our reward, a trip to Anfield. I will forever remember that day being able to see my team in one of the biggest stadiums in the world. But had this happened now, I would've potentially never been able to go and watch them at Anfield as we were so reliant on replays that year. Furthermore, the club (financially) was in a really sorry state so getting the ticket revenue from the Liverpool game literally helped us stay afloat for another year. Fans of the top 6 will *never* understand what it means.

[@joshualiley]

What I will say, as a manager of an amateur team not part of the football pyramid, is that the FA is the most disorganised and horrific organisation to deal with. The FA managed to mess up my DBS (for non English people, essentially a criminal record check to show I am safe to work with children), storing it on a duplicate account so that their records showed that I did not have one, yet the system still allowed me to register under 18 players to my senior team. This caused big issues later down the line when I played said players in matches, and only when I went to record the match information AFTER THE GAME did the system complain. But it didn't say what the issue was, it just didn't allow me to add them to the teamsheet. The real problem is how many other managers have also registered under 18 players but did not have a valid criminal record check, but were still allowed to do so by the FA. And, by the way, this is not the 90s we're talking about when safeguarding wasn't as big of an issue as it should have been, this was the start of last season (2022/23). Other issues I've had with the FA: When trying to sign new players, the system telling me I have to approach a non-existent club for a transfer (team name is blank) Some players not being eligible for selection online for a week after their registration has been approved by the league Acknowledging sin bin offences is a nightmare (yellow and red cards are OK because when you pay the fine for them, it automatically acknowledges the offence for you without you having to do anything, but sin bins carry no fine so you can't do that). I genuinely print and hand sign sin bin acknowledgements and post them to the local FA because it's easier than using the FA system. It's only not easier when the post loses your letter and then you're fucked. When registering for the first time, there is nowhere to enter your gender, yet the system will not allow you to register a player without a gender assigned. Once you've created one, the place to edit it is in a dark corner of the website that takes ages to find. I can see that a player I'm trying to register has no assigned gender on the system, yet up until about a year ago, only the account owner could add their own gender on the system. Fortunately, about a year ago, they allowed the manager to be able to edit the gender of their players, so I no longer have to ask new players to find the most random corner of the website. Similar to above, when creating an account, I can't remember if it was the mobile number or email but at least one of them was listed as optional, yet you can't register a player without it (I think it might be the email but I'm not certain). Anyway, rant over, the FA are useless and the "board of representatives" was probably a bunch of 5 year olds and a paedophile.

[@BeWe1510]

I agree with you. If there wasn’t enough consulting, that is shady but generally I am in favor of scrapping replays, they always felt weird to me. But if the Premier League is so concerned about fixture congestion they should focus on other things too like the two legged semifinal of the league cup or the ever increasing match load of Fifa and Uefa matches due to their race to crank more money out of football

[@Ben-nv9vp]

Ze this will rumble on and on. Clubs are not having it and almost every single non-premier league team seems to be wholly against the changes. It's against the will of the fans and clubs, this one might get messy (a-la bundesliga protests about foreign investments).

[@lordpelagius5078]

Then don't enter the fa Cup That will show them

[@Ben-nv9vp]

@@lordpelagius5078 i am fully in favour of a boycott. We will see

[@alexcoombes8724]

That’s my chairman, Mcanthony also spoke about it on his podcast

[@aaronhurst4379]

UTP

[@StandardRossoneri]

Zealand. Why aren’t you running? WHY ARENT YOU RUNNING????

[@Kevinnn111]

It’s always interesting to see things that aren’t a problem for other countries be a problem for England. Whether it be VAR, match congestion, etc

[@Nameless-j4w]

I remember when my local club dover athletic went through to the third round against Crystal Palace, we got absolutely battered but it was the longest run we ever had in the FA Cup

[@samscholfield5720]

Thanks for fleshing this issue out. I feel like it's a shame ? I'd have been more amenable to a gradual - 4th round, 3rd round leave it at that. To give the 3rd round the hallowed position of being "the glory of the cup round" No VAR. No extra time. The dream of the replay - back at ours or the big away day at the likes of Old Trafford or Tottenham or the Bridge or Anfield... Or even like the Stadium of Light or something. Maybe the Championship / L1 teams - with all of their 20,000 plus attendance stadium owning teams.... They could be leading the charge for some kind of compromise for the non league teams you refer to here. But they're all out for themselves I fear.

[@noahklassen4485]

How is this guy able to make such simple, good videos in such short time?

[@tomsanderson9111]

Back when my club Burton Albion was non-league we got drawn at home Vs Fergie's Man U and the players put in the performance of a lifetime to draw them 0-0. They got absolutely hammered in the replay but the gate receipts from Old Trafford funded a push into the football league that ended in us getting to the championship for a couple of seasons before levelling out in league 1. The fact they're taking that opportunity away from smaller clubs so that prem clubs, who spend hundreds of millions on squad depth every season, don't have to potentially play a couple of extra games a season just shows how little they value clubs sub championship

[@JustinRaify]

I love a good ole fashioned 1773 joke Ze, keep it up.

[@Braddowski]

Why do the Prem teams get a say in Rounds 1 & 2? They don't get involved until Round 3! If the Prem actually cares about having fewer matches, it would reduce its *own* schedule. What they care about is money and they don't see the FA Cup as profitable until the later stages and they want to reduce chances of getting kicked out early...

[@Arctic70]

Wouldn't you rather only have to go through extra time + pens than have to through another 90 to get to the next round. I feel like you've got a better chance of going through and making money without replays. I can't think of any other competition with replays... probably for a reason.

[@Palazzo]

The gate money is generally far more than the prize money they would get by getting through another round or two.

[@iambicpentakill]

I'd bet that they've done the math, but regardless, a replay is gate money guaranteed and you still might win. It's a full extra high money game

[@davidparsons97]

The problem is if you remove replays, you take away the magic. A club that may not win within 90 minutes can try again in a replay and you'll potentially see big "giant killings".

[@mrlawnmowerdeth3298]

Seen this comment alot now. No its not true. Extra time will always favor the bigger clubs. My club Grimsby benefited from a replay last season when we beat Luton in a replay at home in which we then went on a run to the Quarter Finals. If the first game against Luton would of went to extra time im sure we would of lost cause our players were absolutely knackered.

[@aaronhurst4379]

So proud of my club Peterborough releasing a statement against this

[@acikamilovanovic]

bro is the yap master

[@d3w222]

the ironic thing is that more lower league teams might make more upsets, because instead of draws that get replayed into a stomp for epl and championship teams, overtime and shootouts can create miracle runs

[@BucketsGaming23]

The economics mean it's much more viable for replays. As much as miracle runs would be more likely, the money is less and for grassroots football, that's very important

[@lordpelagius5078]

​@@BucketsGaming23you shouldn't get rewarded for failing to win

[@d3w222]

@@lordpelagius5078 i agree with this statement, but the way football works now, if we enforced this ideology completely the exact same teams would always get promoted and relegated every year and the same teams would always play each other in every league for the rest of history and there would be no more crazy lescister type of stories where a club climbs multiple divisions throughout a few years and ends up upsetting giants because they wont have the funding to scout effectively and buy good cheap players or any good players at all. this would cripple any chance for any team thats not an established club with history to go and make their own history because they would have no money and have no means of making any money

[@d3w222]

@@BucketsGaming23 yes for the most part money would be less unfortunately, but i’d wager that those lower league teams making miracle runs would make a heck of a lot more money as a by product

[@belladonna5531]

'strengthen the FA Cup' 🤣🤣

[@lordpelagius5078]

Replays legit make the fa cup an antiquated joke of a competition

[@safcjcp]

@@lordpelagius5078no it keeps it as the most historic competition in the world

[@oliverward8296]

I think i prefer the lightless to the blue however when you move that beautiful green needs to come back! after watching the video I have no idea which I prefer blue or lightless

[@mexicorolls]

Make the Z light up green with nothing else

[@Diogo85]

The green lights are not working.

[@mexicorolls]

@@Diogo85 he said in a previous video that those are better lights and work still

[@hisham_hm]

green jerseys only until the green lights are back

[@livinginpast]

A Dortmund Shirt and blue lights?! That audacity :o

[@dislexyc]

Grey is legitimately depressing Please bring back the blue lights

[@SortOfEggish]

Learning that the FA cup participation is a significant Financial boost to every lower English Club actually makes it even more clear as to why the US Open Cup is unpopular. MLS teams (and other divisions) benefit SO little from the USOC, so they don't take it seriously, and fans get a piss-poor show on the field. Cycle of failure. Don't see why fans want MLS to compete in it if they don't show up anyway.

[@Dench999or911]

Sorry but did you say the Premier League claims to be the most balanced competitive top league going? That says a lot about the state of modern football if that is correct! The establishment of the big 6 has made breaking ground in English football almost impossible (minus Leicester of course). Look at any English league table pre 1992 and the opportunity to break in was available to all, not the few

[@macewol326]

To say "You dont want to become Premier league vs the rest of the English football pyramid" as an efl fan that's they way it has felt to a long time now

[@MrAkabane1]

It's already at the stage where many fans are saying things like "I don't want us to get promoted" because the gap between the EFL and the Premier League is continuing to widen and you now have to bankrupt yourself to compete or have a season like Sheffield United and Burnley are having. No one wants to go up when the best you can hope for is a season like Luton's (who are only still in with half a shout due to everyone around them getting points deductions) Why would we want to get promoted? Why do we want a season in whcih we'll lose almost every game and come straight back down?

[@MJScrivens89]

Having been a civil servant for a decade now, I can say that the word “advised” tends to be used as a softer substitute for instructed or informed, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the EFL representatives were given little to no say in the matter. That said, I wasn’t there, and it’s one organisations word against the other here. It’ll be very interesting to see what other information comes to light over the coming days and weeks.

[@TechieJordan]

20 minute long video? Blessed

[@pawel2669]

Thank you Daniel Jones, I totally did not want to win the couple hundred dollars and am a lot happier winning 31 just because someone could not get a passing touchdown.

[@patrickdawson6281]

Games should be seeded spanish style and played at whichever stadium would generate more revenue for the smaller club, providing both TV money and greater front office revenue.

[@johncromp4389]

late commenter here, FNG made a very good video on this topic aswell that you should definitely check out and he goes into detail about why the fa cup replays are so good for non league teams and why this decision is kind of stupid.

[@sohaibchelleli2870]

Ah yes, The digger you deep.

[@TheStuartGibson]

It takes an American to help us brits understand a bit more about the situation. Can I nominate Zealand Shannon as an independent adjudicator for any and all decisions made for multiple clubs within the British game, not just English, but Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish games.

[@fidesimmortalis]

"he shed c sad"

[@mickvd4]

Penguinz0 ahh title and thumbnail

[@brocephus1107]

The answer is for the Premier League clubs to leave the Carabao Cup

[@mrlawnmowerdeth3298]

Fully agree. Just make it the pure football league from champ -down to league 2.

[@alexbaker9409]

Need green lights, helps me to differentiate which z I’m watching lol

[@EisernRob]

As if fans have a say in England 😂. FA see dollar signs walking around when they look at fans. They’ve marketed themselves so well internationally they don’t need English fan support, you think English fans can successfully protest about anything? They don’t own their clubs for god sake

[@DrZaius3141]

Don't ascribe to malice what you can also ascribe to ignorance. I think that the EPL just doesn't get the value of gate receipts for those lower league clubs because they have no idea about the value of money anymore. Also, I'd argue that depending on the distribution of that 33 million, lower league clubs might just get a better deal out of it anyway.

[@Tonyupnorth]

Green lights please Zealand. Nice and easy to recognise which is mainstream Zealand and which is side quest Zealand

[@Diogo85]

They're not working.

[@iambicpentakill]

I like the lighting Edit: I like the blue lighting a little better

[@Kale_Junkie]

I'm not really bothered that replays have gone. But I am bothered that decisions are being made without any say from the clubs that this decision will effect the most.

[@GregorMcIntosh]

Me watching this from Scotland with no clue what the fuck is going on

[@Drigallski]

imagine being so jealous of the DFB-Pokal, but you still fail to imitate it.

[@thelostcardinal7777]

English fans don’t want the pokal we want our traditional cup structure back replays are an integral part of football for local teams I remember my local team getting replays with Bolton when they were in the prem and Sheffield Wednesday it was massive to the town it can’t be replaced

[@Drigallski]

@@thelostcardinal7777 i mean, replays are a really, REALLY stupid system. Stupid without an example. If this is important just for funding lower tier clubs, maybe you should attack the core issue then and fund lower clubs rather than making this a cup issue

[@VexNew-h7z]

The EFL is too conjested,Colchester united had 42 matches played (out of 46) My club,FGR had 44,and we are relegated now,which is a robbery,because Colchester had double the chances to survive,I also saw the same situation in national league,idk which team litterally had to play tuesday-thursday-saturday which is crazy

[@mrlawnmowerdeth3298]

Thats because clubs like Colchester cant manage their pitch properly. Has nothing to do with the FA cup or efl fixtures in general. Also how the fuck is it robbery that you got relegated out of league 2. You and Sutton by far the 2 worst teams i had to watch this season and thank god that you are going back to where you belong.

[@HappyCodingZX]

Why don't they just seed the third round? give the smaller clubs the best chance of getting a big payday and the chance of an upset. It would also reduce the chance of replays.

[@YazanHakawati]

damn i thought PGB stands for Per Game Berformance

[@jacksonconstantine5740]

The fa cup is the oldest competition in the world for a reason. DONT FUCK WITH IT.

[@MyLilPwny43]

The choices as I see it is screw over the clubs or screw over the players, which in turn will screw over clubs

[@1draigon]

I don’t think that the English football leagues need to fear anything like what the Bundesliga got slapped with, but still… it’s a giant insult to the fans of even the premier league clubs

[@camero3266]

Always with replays don’t be shit and you don’t have to have a replay

[@Royallblu]

like for my guy: my Guy: "harry kane!"

[@willcityaway7971]

The Prem has all the money. Makes the rules in their favor. Anyone expecting anything else is fooling themselves. The corporate owners don't care about football or traditions.

[@marco0445]

Oh no Zealand wore a BvB shirt hes gonna jinx their next game GG :(

[@gavunku]

While i do understand lower league clubs getting upset about getting less money, if it is so with the new format, i really find people complaining about 20 clubs deciding for 700 and stating that is destroying the "spirit of football" really similar to vapid environmentalist who only complain to feel better about themselves. The premier league has the money, so it makes the decisions, if it was any different when the first agreement they ever made in 1992 i'll eat a bucket of crap. I would also like to live in a fantasy world where anybody cares for everybody's interests, but sadly in the real world who has the power uses it. If anyone says otherwise, they are either below 15 yo or a manchild(aka a vapid preserver of the spirit of the sport)

[@fredjames9867]

The top 20 clubs want all the money to themselves

[@camero3266]

They knew the backlash they just don’t care

[@ayden4543]

I'm fairly sure the EFL reps were largely made up of CEOs/directors from championship clubs. I'm led to believe Peter Ridsdale who is a director at my club Preston North End is part of that. He is famous for his part in the downfall of Leeds in the mid 00s so I've no doubt he'd be part of the select committee who are at clubs who'd be largely unaffected by this or comfortable with screwing over smaller clubs

[@HowMuchSignal]

What’s the story on the plush frog?

[@Nooroodin84]

I see no issues here. The replays are a nuisance. Now it’s a true knock out tournament.

[@Mims27]

they should do what the german cup does, while they dont do replays i beleive its up till the 4th round all the games are played at the lower leauge clubs stadium

[@iambicpentakill]

At least in FM, if I make it to the 3rd round, I want an away game at a big club. I'm almost certainly going to lose regardless, and that's where the money is

[@seanfranklin8679]

Its 4/20! Have a good day people

[@sevaspirin843]

Smh, disappointed you didn't sing the FA cup anthem... agreed on this matter of course, at first when I read it I thought it was from 3rd round on but now it seems like this was a hasty decision that made no sense and will profit absolutely nobody in the end

[@martynjeffries937]

GREEN!!

[@tombriggs7765]

The premier league couldn't care less about the English football pyramid. This decision proves that

[@calvin_geo]

Lightless dlc is a win fr

[@Weeji_420]

Its amazing how many people dont know that the Premier league is a breakaway group. Or more like a breakaway business now. They dont care about football. Money. Money. Money. Money.

[@scouse_roar]

I’m a Premier League club fan and replays are the best.

[@thydevdom]

Honestly, if you’re going to go lightless I don’t want it.

[@1986fritzthecat]

How often do replays happen?

[@hernyorleans]

Very often

[@HercahyoAdiSaputro]

if they did this to lighten the schedule of PL team, then they are overdoing it IIRC PL team only start playing in the third round of the FA Cup no?

[@mrlawnmowerdeth3298]

It has nothing to with schedule.

[@janthomassen9577]

You had lights?

[@BoliveiraNTPW]

At this point i think the European Super League should had happened... because of this is the price for not having it... is not worth it.

[@jimmydella7233]

I can see a world in the future where you will have to be invited to compete in the premier league. It sounds ludicrous, but billionaires who own these PL clubs couldn't give a shit about the pyramid and the traditions that made the game what it is, just want to maximise there profits and thats it. The league cup is definitely on the chopping block and the FA cup will be played by the PL u21s team in the future

[@TheShamy]

yeah that's crazy, anyway have you ran today Z?

[@JeremiahKF]

ffs remove the league cup, if you wanna get rid of fixture congestion. no one except the british keeps the league cups around (with exception of some off season ones, where teams don't play enough). The main reason of the national cups is to be a FFA. And even if most countries don't do replays, they have 2 leg matches or home advantage to the lower team which spices things up like the DFB Pokal or Coupe de France which are the best cups out of the big 5. Just look at what Saarbrucken did the past couple of years.