Is the FA Cup a prestigious trophy?

Remember the seasons when it was consistently 2 or 3 of Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and United in the CL semis.

Look at it now.

I'm talking about the Champions league.

How has it carried on for 3 years?

When was the last team English teams as a whole were so crap in Europe? And even this season, there might still be an English team in the final again.

Anyway, FA Cup, it's lost a lot of its prestige but I always want to win it, because it's the first Cup competition I saw us win, and we've not won it since.

Danny wrote:How has it carried on for 3 years?

When was the last team English teams as a whole were so crap in Europe? And even this season, there might still be an English team in the final again.

Anyway, FA Cup, it's lost a lot of its prestige but I always want to win it, because it's the first Cup competition I saw us win, and we've not won it since.

09-10.. no English teams in the semi-finals for the champions league, 2 in the Europa league
10-11.. One English team in the semi-finals, none in the Europa league
11-2.. One English team in the semi-finals, none in the Europa league despite United and City both competing in it.

One team doing well in Europe doesn't account for how average every other team has done.

Its just as shit as the carling cup now, un important.

Its not that great anymore, Lost all prestige when they got rid of replays and starting playing semi finals at wembley when they should be played at a neutral ground, the whole thing that made the FA Cup great was getting to wembley in the final and playing on the holy turf of wembley.

But now thats all gone.

Yes it is. The premier national trophy of the best country in the world. It's an English tradition, any proud Englishman should be proud of the FA Cup!

Definately.

Sad to see all of the no votes when this is the only chance for the little guys to beat the big guys or even just play them. I guess everyone here has short memory or just wants nothing to do with their local non league team. Remember when Havant & Waterlooville were leading at Anfield or when Burton Albion earned a replay to play Manchester United at Old Traford in 2006? When does this happen outside the FA Cup? Almost never.

Henrik's Tongue wrote:

Zzonked wrote:

Don't be silly, look at the winners of the Euorpa league recently and ask yourself, would they stand any chance at all of winning the Premier league?

The premier league is more difficult to win and probably more financially rewarding, although I haven't checked.

Atletico Bilbao > United
Napoli > City

Two teams left in the Europa are in the semi final after beating the top two in England.

Chelsea > Barcelona lo lo lo

For me

CL>pl>Europa>fa>cp=cs

SuperManUtd wrote:Its not that great anymore, Lost all prestige when they got rid of replays and starting playing semi finals at wembley when they should be played at a neutral ground, the whole thing that made the FA Cup great was getting to wembley in the final and playing on the holy turf of wembley.

But now thats all gone.

Ummm.. replays still happen at quarter finals and below.

Weather130 wrote:Sad to see all of the no votes when this is the only chance for the little guys to beat the big guys or even just play them. I guess everyone here has short memory or just wants nothing to do with their local non league team. Remember when Havant & Waterlooville were leading at Anfield or when Burton Albion earned a replay to play Manchester United at Old Traford in 2006? When does this happen outside the FA Cup? Almost never.

How could it happen outside the FA Cup? Semi's being at Wembley have ruined it for me.

We need a rule like the Copa Del Rey to make sure big teams play first team players.

Voted yes to please weather.

Should give a CL spot to the winners, then it would be taking seriously



Although I guess it would be fucked if West Brom or Birmingham or something won it

Gatsby wrote:Should give a CL spot to the winners, then it would be taking seriously



Although I guess it would be fucked if West Brom or Birmingham or something won it

Bring back the Cup Winners Cup!

hell no

The semi finals being played at Wembley is just ridiculous and has lost the total feel of the big final.

1999–2000	Chelsea	1–0	Aston Villa	Wembley Stadium (original)	78,217
2000–01 FA Cup (1) !2000–01	Liverpool	2–1	Arsenal	Millennium Stadium	72,500
2001–02 FA Cup (1) !2001–02	Arsenal	2–0	Chelsea	Millennium Stadium	73,963
2002–03 FA Cup (1) !2002–03	Arsenal	1–0	Southampton	Millennium Stadium	73,726
2003–04 FA Cup (1) !2003–04	Manchester United	3–0	Millwall	Millennium Stadium	71,350
2004–05 FA Cup (1) !2004–05	Arsenal	†0–0	Manchester United	Millennium Stadium	71,876
2005–06 FA Cup (1) !2005–06	Liverpool	†3–3	West Ham United	Millennium Stadium	71,140
2006–07 FA Cup (1) !2006–07	Chelsea	†1–0 *	Manchester United	Wembley Stadium (new)	89,826
2007–08 FA Cup (1) !2007–08	Portsmouth	1–0	Cardiff City	Wembley Stadium (new)	89,874
2008–09 FA Cup (1) !2008–09	Chelsea	2–1	Everton	Wembley Stadium (new)	89,391
2009–10 FA Cup (1) !2009–10	Chelsea	1–0	Portsmouth	Wembley Stadium (new)	88,335
2010–11 FA Cup (1) !2010–11	Manchester City	1–0	Stoke City	Wembley Stadium (new)	88,643

Well the past 12 finals have been won by mostly teams that were in the top 4 in English football so it seems important enough to them when they won it.

Premiership, Champions League

FA Cup

Europa League

Carling Cup

no one cares about fa cup outside of england

Yes it is, although it has lost some since 4th started being hyped as more important. I love the FA Cup and was devastated when we lost to Chelsea. As a Tottenham fan it is still prestigious, as a Crawley fan it gives us a chance to play at massive stadiums (Old Trafford last year) and big teams. Agree that the semis should not be held at Wembley, also it seems the fans of clubs in the semis get more tickets for that than the final itself.

Yes! I love the F.A cup, however I do think that having the semi's at Wembley has killed it off a bit. Villa Park/Old Trafford

Never understood why they picked Villa park

easley91 wrote:Yes it is, although it has lost some since 4th started being hyped as more important. I love the FA Cup and was devastated when we lost to Chelsea. As a Tottenham fan it is still prestigious, as a Crawley fan it gives us a chance to play at massive stadiums (Old Trafford last year) and big teams. Agree that the semis should not be held at Wembley, also it seems the fans of clubs in the semis get more tickets for that than the final itself.

Financially 4th makes the FA Cup look like the consolation prize you gave to the slow kid in class so he wouldn't feel too bad.

Seriously though, if the FA want the FA Cup to become "relevant" among clubs again, up the prize money from £1.8M to £10M. That would bring a whole new level of importance to it. I know it's supposed to be more important than money, but that's just not how reality works.

I guess if you looked at size alone the FA Cup is not all that big. This year for example the FA Cup had 763 teams enter, meanwhile the Coupe de France had 7,422 teams enter. I am not sure this would make things better but it would be interesting if the FA Cup was opened to all parts of the UK like how the Coupe de France is opened to all parts of France.

Laurencio wrote:

easley91 wrote:Yes it is, although it has lost some since 4th started being hyped as more important. I love the FA Cup and was devastated when we lost to Chelsea. As a Tottenham fan it is still prestigious, as a Crawley fan it gives us a chance to play at massive stadiums (Old Trafford last year) and big teams. Agree that the semis should not be held at Wembley, also it seems the fans of clubs in the semis get more tickets for that than the final itself.

Financially 4th makes the FA Cup look like the consolation prize you gave to the slow kid in class so he wouldn't feel too bad.

Seriously though, if the FA want the FA Cup to become "relevant" among clubs again, up the prize money from £1.8M to £10M. That would bring a whole new level of importance to it. I know it's supposed to be more important than money, but that's just not how reality works.

That would just be a waste of money for the FA.

Opening the FA Cup to overseas UK territory would at the very least make things more interesting. Having a team like maybe Manchester United travel to the British Virgin Islands to play a match might make it a bit more interesting.

Weather130 wrote:Opening the FA Cup to overseas UK territory would at the very least make things more interesting. Having a team like maybe Manchester United travel to the British Virgin Islands to play a match might make it a bit more interesting.

No it wouldn't.

LFC_Grunners wrote:Yes! I love the F.A cup, however I do think that having the semi's at Wembley has killed it off a bit. Villa Park/Old Trafford

Never understood why they picked Villa park

Because Villa Park was a ground that did hold more fans back in the days.

Laurencio wrote:

easley91 wrote:Yes it is, although it has lost some since 4th started being hyped as more important. I love the FA Cup and was devastated when we lost to Chelsea. As a Tottenham fan it is still prestigious, as a Crawley fan it gives us a chance to play at massive stadiums (Old Trafford last year) and big teams. Agree that the semis should not be held at Wembley, also it seems the fans of clubs in the semis get more tickets for that than the final itself.

Financially 4th makes the FA Cup look like the consolation prize you gave to the slow kid in class so he wouldn't feel too bad.

Seriously though, if the FA want the FA Cup to become "relevant" among clubs again, up the prize money from £1.8M to £10M. That would bring a whole new level of importance to it. I know it's supposed to be more important than money, but that's just not how reality works.

But, a trophy theoretically is better than 4th, which still doesn't guarantuee you a Champions League spot. I say scrap 4th as that spot and give it to the FA Cup winner, if the winner is a club in 1st-3rd then give it to 4th. Make the FA Cup more important again.

easley91 wrote:

Laurencio wrote:

Financially 4th makes the FA Cup look like the consolation prize you gave to the slow kid in class so he wouldn't feel too bad.

Seriously though, if the FA want the FA Cup to become "relevant" among clubs again, up the prize money from £1.8M to £10M. That would bring a whole new level of importance to it. I know it's supposed to be more important than money, but that's just not how reality works.

But, a trophy theoretically is better than 4th, which still doesn't guarantuee you a Champions League spot. I say scrap 4th as that spot and give it to the FA Cup winner, if the winner is a club in 1st-3rd then give it to 4th. Make the FA Cup more important again.

It isn't though.