18-04-2024, 12:51 PM
(18-04-2024, 12:22 PM)Brekkie Wrote: FA Cup replays scrapped from next season, which not only devalues the competition but surely creates scheduling headaches with every game possibly going to extra time to factor into scheduling.
www.thefa.com
A sad but inevitable decision.
I wouldn't go as far as saying it devalues the competition. Replays were often awkward to schedule for TV and for teams (the first or second round often clashing with FTA international football an example). This will guarantee a result on the day, which will be good for viewers. Penalty shootouts aee always exciting and provide a likely rating uplift, and this means there could/should be more of them. There only being one game per tie theoretically makes it more likely for the potential for upsets; the lesser team will only have to survive 30 minutes rather than the game resets for 90 minutes. I'm sure there's countless examples like the below where the lesser team got smashed in the replay, when now they could eek a win on penalties.
www.bbc.co.uk
Other changes from the announcement...
The fifth round moves back to a weekend, and, along with the quarter-finals, will have no Premier League fixtures scheduled alongside them. The fourth round will have matches on the Tuesday and Wednesday following, which I'm sure no-one will moan about.
The FA Cup Final will no longer be the last day of the domestic season. There will be no PL fixtures on the same Saturday, or the previous Friday, so PL Matchweek 37 will likely be Sunday-Thursday.