The FA Cup could regain it’s magic by learning lessons from more captivating cup competitions played around the world.
There is nothing more quintessentially English on the football calendar than FA Cup third round weekend. It’s when the modern game clashes with the tradition of another era and the fabled ‘magic of the cup’ is palpable. Or at least, that used to be the case.
The FA Cup lost its lustre some time ago. Fans and experts may try to make a case for the oldest cup competition in club football, but the game has moved on. Increasingly, the FA Cup is seen as an irrelevance, certainly at the elite level.
It doesn’t have to be this way, though. Indeed, the FA Cup could learn lessons from other cup competitions around the world. At 154 years old, the FA Cup needs a rethink. Some new ideas could make it special again.
Spain’s Copa del Rey could offer some inspiration, certainly regarding the competition’s early rounds which are seeded. This means there are no all-LaLiga ties in the early rounds, instead pitting the country’s biggest clubs against lower league minnows.
On top of this, the minnows are always given the opportunity to host. Barcelona, for example, travelled to fourth tier Barbastro last week where they played on a muddy pitch in front of a crowd of just a few thousand. Despite their 4-0 win, it was a humbling experience for Hansi Flick and his players.
There were a number of upsets across last weekend’s Copa del Rey round of 32, including a 3-0 win for fourth tier Pontevedra over last season’s competition runners up Mallorca. Sevilla were also thumped 4-1 by second division Almería.
If the ‘magic of the cup’ is most evident in the upsets produced in a competition, the FA Cup must do more to harness its lower league participants in the early rounds. What do so many all-Premier League ties – like Aston Villa v West Ham and Arsenal v Manchester United this weekend – offer fans that the Premier League itself doesn’t already?
While the Premier League is purely concerned with producing the highest quality of football, the FA Cup should be designed to produce storylines. Neutral viewers won’t tune in to Saturday’s third round tie between Manchester City and Salford City hoping to see a win for Pep Guardiola’s team. They want to see a shock.
The Coupe de France is another cup competition that has a strong track record of providing a pathway to lower league teams. Last season, Ligue 2 Valenciennes made a run to the semi-finals. The season before that, Annency of the same division also made the final four. In 2000, amateur side Calais reached the final.
English football could follow the lead of its neighbour across the Channel by scrapping the League Cup. That’s what France did by abolishing the Coupe de la Ligue in 2020, primarily to ease fixture congestion. The competition was seen as superfluous, as many would argue the Carabao Cup is.
However, a byproduct of the Coupe de la Ligue’s scrapping has been a more intense spotlight on the Coupe de France, French football’s last remaining cup competition for all teams in the league pyramid. Might a similar move to get rid of the Carabao Cup help boost the FA Cup?
In Scotland, they have experimented with a group stage in the League Cup that guarantees each team a certain number of matches. A seeded draw means every group pairs sides from the top two divisions against relative minnows, increasing the likelihood of an upset. Other innovations – like penalty kicks for a bonus point in the event of a draw – have also been introduced.
It’s never been more important for there to be a common thread through the fabric of English football and the FA Cup provides this. While the rich getter richer at Premier League-level, the fact that the competition tethers the biggest clubs in the country to those further down the ladder should be cherished.
Such is the wealth at the top of English football in the modern age, no format change will alter the dynamic of the FA Cup’s latter rounds. Since 2013, only one non-Big Six member (Leicester City) has won the competition and that run is expected to continue indefinitely. The grip of England’s biggest clubs on the trophy is a firm one.
The magic of the FA Cup, however, could be rekindled by looking to how other cup competitions have caught the imagination and found their place in the modern game. The FA Cup might be the original, but the likes of the Copa del Rey and Coupe de France have surpassed it as the best. Measures must be taken to change that.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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