Football clubs rally to back FA Cup and call for end to closed deals
“The anger from across all levels of football is huge. Sadly this is totemic of the growing arrogance at the top of the game, and the disdain they show for the rest of the football pyramid.”
Niall Couper, CEO, Fair Game
WEDNESDAY 1 MAY 2024, LONDON, UK - Football chiefs from across the football pyramid joined forces today in an angry riposte to the flawed consultation process that has seen FA Cup replays being jettisoned from the first-round proper from next season.
The clubs, including three past winners of the trophy - Bolton Wanderers, Bury and AFC Wimbledon - this year’s FA Cup heroes Maidstone United and over 30 others, have now penned a letter to the Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer backing a Fair Game amendment to the Football Governance Bill.
The decision was made by the Premier League and the FA in a response to pressure on the football calendar. The reaction from the rest of the pyramid has been almost entirely hostile with a vast majority of clubs kept in the dark.
The amendment demands that any change to the FA Cup must require a majority of eligible clubs to back it.
The letter, which has also been sent to the Premier League, the FA and the EFL, said:
“We want to save the FA Cup. The FA Cup is the oldest football competition in the world and the decision to remove FA Cup replays from the first-round proper further undermines its prestige and does nothing to help protect our cherished football pyramid.
“The Premier League’s influence in this decision is yet another example of football’s growing divide that has seen the gaps between and within divisions grow at all levels.
“Participating clubs in the FA Cup were not consulted. Our clubs as well as the fans have been let down.”
The letter goes on to question the pressure on the calendar. It states:
“A Premier League club that qualifies for the Champions League - and there will be only four of them in the 2024/25 season - will play a minimum of 50 matches. That includes 38 league games, at least one in the FA Cup, one in the EFL Cup, and 10 Champions League group-stage fixtures.
“However, League One and League Two clubs - and there are 48 of them - will play a minimum of 51 matches (46 in the league, a minimum of one FA Cup and one EFL Cup tie, and three EFL trophy group games). That’s 11 more than Premier League clubs that don’t qualify for Europe.”
Niall Couper, CEO of Fair Game, added:
“The anger from across all levels of football is huge. Sadly this is totemic of the growing arrogance at the top of the game, and the disdain they show for the rest of the football pyramid.
“Our latest research has shown that the gap in and between divisions is widening at every level. The new regulator needs to step in and reverse that damaging trend that is destroying the game’s heritage and turning the pyramid into a greasy pole.”
The full letter is available to download here.
Fair Game’s lawyers have prepared an amendment to section 54(8) of the Bill, which seeks to deal with the FA Cup changes, and proposed changes to other competitions, by stating that any consultation must include all eligible clubs and demonstrate that a majority of those clubs approve of the change. If the changes were to have implication for distributions of revenues, they would require approval by the regulator.
