FA Cup romance is dying painful death

Despite last weekend’s giant- killings, the FA Cup is not held in the same regard as it once was due to the financial powerhouses, which are the Premier League and Champions League.

Relegation from the English Premier League will ultimately cost a club £ 41 million ( Dh237 million), whereas an FA Cup win will earn them £ 4.3 million. You do the maths: There’s no magic to the cup, despite what people say.

Non- league Luton beating Norwich, Oldham stunning Liverpool and Leeds shocking Spurs, all sounds very romantic. But in actual fact the bigger clubs couldn’t care less.

True, an FA Cup win qualifies a team to Uefa’s Europa League, where a winning run on the continent could earn them a total prize fund payout of £ 7 million plus £ 3-£ 6 million in TV revenue.

But with the English Premier League winners getting £ 60 million with £ 750,000 deducted per position thereafter, it’s clear what the bigger prize is.

For the QPRs and Aston Villas, it’s a case of staying in the league and keeping a guar- anteed £ 30 million in TV money.

Whereas for clubs like Spurs and Liverpool, it’s all about striving for a top- four finish, where just making the group phase of the Uefa Champions League could earn them £ 6.5 million and a winning run could ultimately earn a club £ 47.3 million.

They receive £ 850,000 for a Champions League group match win, £ 170,000 for a Europa League group win and £ 67,500 for a win in the third round of the cup. So, go figure.

The top end of English football has outgrown its cup formats, whereas the smaller clubs desperately still need it to survive. It’s not like the good old days when Bournemouth beating Manchester United actually meant something, and a cup run was mutually beneficial.

In reality, no coach or chairman of a top club is now going to make the cup a target if it adds to an already congested fixture list at the business end of a season.

I’m not suggesting clubs have purposefully got themselves knocked out, but the rate of giant- killing incidents, and the qualification of recent finalists in the League and FA Cup is highly dubious. This could explain the likes of Bradford and Swansea making the League Cup final as the top clubs now see the Premier League and Champions League as the holy grail.