4th Champions League Spot

[Phoenix07]

Maybe for FA Cup replays, teams playing against other teams from the same division, they could be scrapped?

The League Cup is a tough one. I've thought for a while that maybe Champions League teams, or even at a push, teams playing in Europe could be excluded? The latter would've affected us this season of course.

As for a Champions League given to FA Cup winners, I'm not in favour of that. It should be based on league performance. The final should be the last domestic game of the season for a start. Scrap semi-finals at Wembley.

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

Maybe for FA Cup replays, teams playing against other teams from the same division, they could be scrapped?

The League Cup is a tough one. I've thought for a while that maybe Champions League teams, or even at a push, teams playing in Europe could be excluded? The latter would've affected us this season of course.

As for a Champions League given to FA Cup winners, I'm not in favour of that. It should be based on league performance. The final should be the last domestic game of the season for a start. Scrap semi-finals at Wembley.

The league would become very boring if the league loses its 4th CL place too, top 2 teams in the league get into the CL and the 3rd place could be Wigan.

No way UEFA would go for it either? The CL viewings are already down are likely to fall further with neither us or United in it next year.

[RedAndWhite]

The league would become very boring if the league loses its 4th CL place too, top 2 teams in the league get into the CL and the 3rd place could be Wigan.

No way UEFA would go for it either? The CL viewings are already down are likely to fall further with neither us or United in it next year.

Nor Chelsea

[topscorer]

The league would become very boring if the league loses its 4th CL place too, top 2 teams in the league get into the CL and the 3rd place could be Wigan.



No way UEFA would go for it either? The CL viewings are already down are likely to fall further with neither us or United in it next year.

I take on board all the against comments made and generally I'm a traditionalist. Not sure if I want this, it was just an idea I was floating for discussion.

Assuming we have 4 places surely what I said would make the league more exciting and the FA Cup and League Cup more competitive.

With what I suggested above 4th & 5th place would now have a chance to get into the CL via a playoff with the FA & League Cup winners.

If you wanted to be really traditional and go back to the days when we won our first three European Cups then only the league winners would play in the tournament.

Who knows when we could hope to play in the tournament again then! And wasn't the Europa League the cup winners cup? So only the FA Cup winners took part in that tournament, not mid table teams finishing 6th or 7th in the league.

[shanks69]

If you gave a spot to an fa cup winner there could be a chance of a relegated team playing in the cl,and if the team that wins the fa cup has already qualified for the cl through the league do you give the fa cup runners up the cl spot and once again that could be a team that has been relegated.

[topscorer]

I think that the fixture congestion is only a problem for the sides in Europe. for the rest of the sides the extra game doesn't make much difference.

PL sides have 38 league games,
To get to the League Cup final would be 7 games (sides in Europe enter a round later). Getting to the FA Cup final is 6 games (with no replays)

A PL side not in Europe getting to two finals would play 51 games (maybe 1 or 2 more with replays), but that almost never happens, and a typical PL club would probably play about 45 games in total.

It is Europe that makes the difference, if you make the group stage of the CL or Europa league that's 6 games (more if you need to go through qualifiers) even if you go out after the group stage and go out early in the FA and league cups the minimum number of games you will play is 46 which is close to the maximum that any other PL club not in europe will play. Obviously if you want to be successful you will need to play more games.

I think that the only PL sides who suffer because of FA Cup replays are those in Europe which are generally the bigger clubs. If fixture congestion is really an issue then it gives an advantage to sides who aren't in Europe which should mean that there is more chance of 'smaller' teams winning the cups. Which I am in favour of.

But if you look at the winners of the FA Cup over the last 20 years only two winners (Portsmouth and Wigan) haven't been one of the top clubs. The league cup has a better record, but over the last 10 years it too has been dominated by the big clubs, so I don't see that it is such an issue for these clubs.

Regarding 4th CL spot Even if it went to the Cup winners, based on the recent winners of the FA Cup very little would change in terms of the teams that are in the CL. League performance has to be the overall factor for determining who deserves to be in the CL.

What about Championship, League 1 & League 2 teams? They have 46 league games a season and don't have the money to make big squads.

They also have to play in the earlier rounds of the FA Cup and League Cup

[topscorer]

If you gave a spot to an fa cup winner there could be a chance of a relegated team playing in the cl,and if the team that wins the fa cup has already qualified for the cl through the league do you give the fa cup runners up the cl spot and once again that could be a team that has been relegated.

Yes, that would be a problem with the playoff idea. A team that wins the league and the FA Cup are not going to be interested in the playoff.

[redmike65]

Get rid of FA Cup replays and two legs in League Cup games to reduce fixtures.

Of this I would approve, the smaller team when draw at home to a big side should regard their cabbage patch pitch and vociferous crowd as the advantage and not try to hold out for a replay. With regard to how much money could be made from a replay at a much bigger venue I'd compensate for that by having a top-up payment for clubs outside the Premier League who are defeated after extra time/penos in their home game. If they are drawn away to a Prem side then they'll have to be happy with their 45% of the gate and TV money if shown.

I'd move the LC forward and have it done and dusted by mid December, and yes ditch the two-leg semi final for a one off at Villa Park.

[Exiled_red]

What about Championship, League 1 & League 2 teams? They have 46 league games a season and don't have the money to make big squads.

They also have to play in the earlier rounds of the FA Cup and League Cup

I don't think that the Championship and League 1 or League 2 clubs mind the replays as a big time is a huge money spinner.

League 1 and League 2 sides join the FA cup at the first round stage and only 20 sides from League 1 or lower make the 3rd round. Championship clubs join in the 3rd round with the PL clubs. Based on these numbers more than half of all league 1 or 2 sides will be out by the third round, most of those remaining will be out in the 3rd or 4th round. Similarly for the championship clubs most will be gone by the 5th round so in reality the majority of lower league clubs will still play less than 3 FA cup ties. Probably a similar story with the league cup. Typically I imagine teams will play about 50 games in total in the league and two cups. Also the lower league schedule isn't interrupted for international fixtures as few of their players are involved so are able to play those extra league games over the weekends that the PL loses to those, while not haaving their players playing additional games.

[ChesterDave]

The lower league teams though (1 and 2) have the football league trophy too.

You are however correct that the latter rounds of the cup are made up mostly of teams from the Premier League.

An opinion that was on the radio on Fridat was no replays from the quarter finals onwards in the FA Cup. Seems reasonable to me.

[Exiled_red]

The lower league teams though (1 and 2) have the football league trophy too.

You are however correct that the latter rounds of the cup are made up mostly of teams from the Premier League.

An opinion that was on the radio on Fridat was no replays from the quarter finals onwards in the FA Cup. Seems reasonable to me.

Aren't there already no replays for semi finals and finals, so changing to quarter finals I guess makes very little difference, so is there much point?

True the League 1 and League 2 clubs have the football league trophy as well but again that's a maximum of 6 games, given the likelihood of early elimination from the FA Cup and league cup, you are still only looking at a likely maximum of 10 total cup games giving about 56 games (with no internationals) more likely 52 or 53 games being typical.

I would say that figure is probably fairly typical for club sides, PL clubs not in Europe probably average 5 or 6 games less, sides in Europe probably 5 or 6 more. I guess the difference between PL and lower leagues is that PL players also probably play International games on top of that.

[ChesterDave]

Not sure on replays for semi finals. I wasn't aware they had been scrapped. Definitely none for the Final.

[topscorer]

Not sure on replays for semi finals. I wasn't aware they had been scrapped. Definitely none for the Final.

When did they stop that?

I'm just thinking back to when I was a child and I can remember replays of finals and they didn't pay them at Wembley either did they. Madness!

[ChesterDave]

1993, according to the Internet's most popular encyclopedia.

[RedReet]

Ha, I suggested this a few years ago in the radical opinions thread. I'd be all for a CL place going to the FA cup winners. Who cares about 4th place in the league and why should it be rewarded?