FA Cup payments based on exceeding expectations

[Sydney Blade]

Just thinking of ideas to “save” the FA CUP and one is upping the payments for progress. Sadly this has a downside of further lining the prem teams’ pockets… so I delved deeper.

Perhaps they could set a typical ceiling for teams progress… league 1 = 3rd round, champ = 4th round, prem = quarters… and then have incremental payments for each round/win higher than the baseline.

This would result in huge rewards for minnows (your Wrexhams of this world ) who make it to round 5, etc. - possibly even in excess of the winners for example.

Just an idea but would be interested to hear thoughts as otherwise it will become (even more) just a squad competition with a big 4 winner every year, further exacerbating the gulf and boring fans to tears. Instead, let’s redistribute and bring back some magic.

 

[Fjortoft's Aeroplane]

Can only up the payments if there's the spare dosh to do it.. my hunch is that there isn't.

I've just suggested this in another thread but I'll say it again.. Start the 3rd round in mid-Feb and let the cup play out over a shorter period of time. In early January mid table teams can still have one eye on relegation and one eye on a top 6 finish, making the cup a nuisance. By mid Feb some teams will have accepted they're heading for mid-table mediocrity and will be more willing to try and save their season with a cup run.

 

[SwissBlade]

Would help if the fa cup 3rd round wasn’t on the back of a four game Xmas/ new year period playing games every 3 days.

Would also help not to have the game at 7pm on a Thursday, makes no sense at all, even for TV

One of payments to clubs will be great as it can keep clubs alive, but I think the incentive for the fa cup when your team is playing for promotion or survival is less of a carrot

For teams like Wednesday, with nothing to play for, it’s probably a good chance to progress

But let’s be right, even they will look to play a weakened team on the back of a physically demanding few games

 

[Jon Bon II]

Perhaps the FA should just stop fucking about with the format. Perhaps all the games should be played at 3pm on a Saturday and, perhaps, a reasonable time on a Sunday. And perhaps the FA shouldn't have let Man Utd dip out of it to play a meaningless game at the other side of the world that time, spoiling the 'magic of the cup' and rendering the early rounds of the competition as a bit meh in the eyes of many.