THE FA MUST NOT ALLOW THE CUP TO BE SQUEEZED OUT
JUNE 30, 1999 is regarded by many as the day the FA Cup died.
It was then a joint statement from the Football Association and Manchester United confirmed the holders would not defend their trophy the following season. It was the right decision, but for the wrong reasons.
The English FA were terrified that if United refused to participate in a revamped FIFA Club World Cup in Brazil that January, this would affect England’s bid to host the World Cup in 2006. The mission was doomed anyway, and so was that particular format for the Club World Cup.
Yet the FA Cup endures, despite the constant questioning of its relevance. This summer, however, there is a very real chance of losing it. What the FA does with its marquee tournament in the coming weeks will quite probably shape its longer term fate.
If the FA Cup becomes the only major competition in English football that does not attempt to complete its season, what chance does it have of continued relevance?
If the FA Cup is allowed to slip away unmourned, squeezed out in the desire to finish the league season and European competition, then it is over. How can we ever judge a manager or club that spurns it again? How can it be afforded respect, its place in the calendar, when its existence plainly does not matter? What the FA does with the FA Cup this summer is now crucial.
The hit it took in 1999 is overplayed. The FA’s creeping and crawling around FIFA’s cabal of crooks was little short of sickening even at the time, but beyond that there was a case for Manchester United’s withdrawal.
While the Club World Cup continues to be held in Europe’s midwinter it presents a huge problem for a country with a 20-team league and two domestic cup competitions. That hasn’t changed across two decades.
Liverpool were every bit as compromised in 2019 as United would have been in 2000 — as demonstrated by their Carabao Cup quarter-final decision. Once the Club World Cup expanded — in effect replacing a one-off showpiece match between the champions of Europe and South America — it was always going to place pressure on any English qualifier.
So even without the clumsy politicking, it was reasonable that United be offered the opportunity to avoid an overwhelming schedule in 1999-2000. Indeed, had the possibility been spotted earlier, the FA could have made it a rule — that any club qualifying for this new event could be given the option of withdrawing from one domestic cup competition to facilitate their progress. What would be the downside in English football aiming to have the current world champions?
Still, no-one spotted it, no-one prepared for it and, once Manchester United won the 1998-99 Champions League, there was an inevitable row over priorities.
Yet United’s decision still isn’t the reason for the FA Cup’s decline; as if one club missing one season could destroy a competition with such incredible history.
In fact, a list of FA Cup winners since United withdrew suggests there is no struggle getting the elite to treat the competition seriously: Chelsea and Arsenal have won it six times each, Manchester United, Liverpool and Manchester City twice each, with Portsmouth and Wigan the only victors from outside the big six. And Leicester have won the Premier League in that time, too.
The decline of the FA Cup relates to the wealth available in the Premier League and Champions League, making fourth a more rewarding achievement than domestic trophy success, and survival more appealing than a day out at Wembley.
Deciding not to finish the FA Cup at all, however, is another matter. If not one club but all eight quarter-finalists reject the FA Cup, where is it next season?
Equally, what is the purpose if — as is being reported — the small clubs are cut loose in 202021, with those beyond the sixth tier of the pyramid excluded?
This season, 739 clubs entered the preliminary rounds, beginning in August. Yet there are suggestions it will only be possible to play from what would have been the fourth qualifying round next year, leaving England’s four professional leagues, plus three National Leagues the only entrants. Again, the reputational damage would be significant.
The first round proper in 2019 included Maldon and Tiptree and Chichester City from tier eight, plus Stourbridge, Nantwich Town, Carshalton Athletic, Kingstonian and Hayes and Yeading, all from outside the National Leagues. And while none made it as far as round three when the top 44 clubs enter, the fact they might and the prospect Manchester United could be dragged down to the Wallace Binder Ground in east Essex is what makes the FA Cup such an exceptional prize.
Now the pyramid is fluid, more than half of the National League clubs have been in the Football League at some stage anyway. Non-league does not carry the same meaning.
It is obvious the Premier League’s conclusion is a priority, it is obvious for the handful of clubs still involved in Europe those ties are important, but in the coming weeks a plan must be formulated to afford the FA Cup its rightful role in English football’s improvised calendar. And if the governing body cannot do this, if it cannot make a claim for its integrity and worth, then what is the point in any of it?