Welsh sides won’t face replays following shake-up

THE winner of Swansea City’s FA Cup fifth round tie with Brentford will be decided tomorrow following a rule change from the Football Association.

Traditionally, if the scores were level at the end of the 90 minutes in South Wales, there would be a replay at Griffin Park.

But in December, the FA announced that fifth round replays have been scrapped, a year earlier than originally planned.

It means the victor of Sunday’s clash between the Swans and the Bees will be decided on Sunday, with extra time and penalties set to be used at the Liberty if the game is level after 90 minutes.

The same applies to Newport County who host reigning Premier League champions Manchester City at Rodney Parade tonight.

The FA introduced the rule to “alleviate fixture congestion, with six Premier League clubs qualifying for the knockout stages of European competitions and Uefa Champions League, Uefa Europa League ties and a midweek round of Premier League fixtures scheduled in latter February and March”.

Winners of the fifth round ties will receive 75% (£270,000) of the FA’s £360,000 prize fund payment, with the losers set to scoop the remaining 25% (£90,000) allocated for each fixture.

From the 2019-20 campaign onwards, fifth round ties will take place in midweek, with no replays due to the new two-week mid-season break set to be introduced.

Swansea beat Aston Villa and Gillingham to reach round five while Newport have overcome Metropolitan Police, Wrexham, Leicester City and Middlesbrough in this season’s competition.