The Magic Of The FA Cup
The Magic of the FA Cup
The first FA Cup final I vaguely remember was 1975 when West Ham beat Fulham 2-0. I also have vague memories of 1976, but it’s from 1977 onwards, when I was 8, that FA Cup magic hit me. In recent times, maybe even the past 20 years the ‘magic’ of the Cup has been diminished somewhat, although us the fans, still love it as much as ever. Below are my views as to what has changed and why the Cup is just another game to some.
Television
TV is the major player in sport these days; the amount of money thrown at the game makes it what it is, truly massive and global. I can’t comment for certain about how many live games were on TV in England pre 1977 but around then we had a total of 3 live games each year guaranteed and the odd extra England live game if we were lucky. The rest of our coverage was from highlights and that was limited (the role of TV in sport will be another blog entry). The games that were live were the FA Cup Final, England v Scotland at either Wembley or Hampden Park and the European Cup Final; these three games were in an 8 day period in May. The FA Cup Final being shown on both BBC and ITV.
With the FA CUP final being the first live game of the three, excitement round the country was huge. BBC1 would cut Swap Shop short and at 11-15 Grandstand would start. We didn’t have Videos, PVR’s etc so we either watched it live or not at all.
From memory the running of the show was as listed below. It may have changed slightly year on year. In between a few of the items there were usually 2 or 3 horse races as well.
• Interviews with the players at the teams’ hotels
• Cup Final edition of Question of Sport
• The Road to Wembley
• On the Coach with the teams coming to Wembley
• The players sampling the atmosphere
• Abide with me
• Players meeting Royalty
• Game
• Presentation of the trophy
• Highlights of the Scottish Cup Final
That was 6 hours dedicated to the Cup Final almost exclusively.
Fast Forward to 2014 and that has now been cut dramatically, and whilst not everyone has Pay TV or access to it, there are now 154 league games alone shown live on UK TV. Therefore the FA Cup Final does become just another game to many neutral fans.
The Schedule
In years gone by, the first Saturday in January, FA Cup 3rd round day. Possibly the best weekend of football, loads of games, upsets, drama and it all unfolded on the radio or via the teleprinter on Grandstand. If you were at the game and your team drew you were busy planning how to get tickets (often not needed) or the trip to the replay on the Tuesday or Wednesday. And if that game was drawn the same thing happened time after time. Now we get one replay and penalties, something else that has taken the gloss off the Cup.
Now on a Saturday, we get very few games played involving the big teams, approximately half the games are moved to other days, again for TV and convenience for police and authorities. The games being played over a longer period has spoiled what was a great day for many.
Importance
With so much emphasis now on the league, getting promoted, avoiding relegation, CL qualification, all due to the financial side of the game, a lot of clubs choose to rest players, and play virtually a B team in the Cup. When fans go to a game and don’t see their main players the whole competition is devalued.
In 1999 Manchester Utd were ‘exempted’ from entering the Cup to go on a money spinning competition in South America. To me this was the start of the downfall of the cup, a top team, backed by the governing body letting a team miss it to make money.
Wembley
Playing at Wembley should be the pinnacle of fans and players season, by having the Semi Finals at Wembley and obviously on separate days, another bit of the appeal has gone.
Arsenal won their first competition in 9 years on Saturday, the joy showed by the players, and more importantly the fans, has been immense. I think the Clubs, TV companies and the authorities should do all they can to ensure that the oldest Cup competition in the World rekindles its magic and goes back, in some ways, to what it was.
The first change to get the cup back on track, is to have it kicking off at 3:00pm, and ensure it doesn’t move from the week after the league season finishes.
Matthew Selby 
My 1st memory was the 1971 final, we had just moved to Skelmersdale and Steve Heighway had played for the local club before moving onto Liverpool so there was a fair amount of local interest.
I agree wholeheartedly with you about the Cup losing its shine (pun intended) and yes its money and the saturation of live games, and moving the semi finals to Wembley that has done this.
For me the money aspect really came to the fore when Budweiser (from memory) bought the rights and the KO time was promptly changed to allow for a bigger worldwide audience, or more like Budweiser being able to dictate the KO time so its sponsorship could be seen by a bigger audience.
The other thing is changing the date it is played, it is the oldest and most revered cup final in the world for the traditionalists and having it at the end of the season is what its all about, the last furore, the last chance for some silverware, unless you are in the European Cup final. The AFL has got it right, watching the grand final is like a throwback to my youth, it starts with the grand final breakfast, then the interviews, the pitch side chat, the teams arriving, the walk onto the ground, the music (all a bit yankee doodle dee but I like it) then the KO which by then is anticipated with fervour.
We have got it wrong, the FA Cup should never be about money, it should always be about tradition, semi finals played at neutral grounds not Wembley, every single game played at 3pm on a Saturday and the Final always the last game of the season, at Wembley, with a replay if needed, and at 3pm.
The people will still watch.