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They should give the FA Cup winner a champions league spot and if necessary take away one spot from the premier league. After all, the cup winner is much more of a champion than the fourth or fifth place team. Only then we would see some respect for the cup. I’m not holding my breath though. If the “big teams” can’t have their super league, they are going to keep throwing their toys out of the pram until they get what they want anyway with or without a super league.
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Originally Posted by Calgarybaggy
Don’t agree! Finishing fourth in the Premier takes quality and consistency. Let’s say Coventry win the FA Cup and Spurs finish fourth in the Premier. How can anybody say Coventry deserve a Champions League place over Spurs in any situation! It’s crazy!
I do agree though it’s a shocking decision from the FA all to protect the pampered Premier players already on huge money - having training facilities most clubs would die for - having personal fitness coaches etc. Perhaps they could miss international matches but hey that’s not going to happen!
Sorry, Al, I have to disagree with you. If Coventry win the FA Cup, apart from it being a quite remarkable achievement, they will have won a major competition; yes ‘won’ it. Whereas Spurs, if the finish fourth, will have won nothing, regardless of how good they will have been to get to fourth; they will be the fourth finishing losers.Quote:
Originally Posted by baggieal
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Originally Posted by kettering_baggie
I respect your view Ketts but anyone can win one off matches ie Ipswich losing to a non league side. The top four teams in the championship are there for a reason - all have played consistently better football over the 40+ plus league games.
In Coventry’s example - they have been like us in the league - inconsistent with quite a number of off days. They could beat Man Utd in a one off match and then one game in the final could be down to complete luck - remember Wimbledon!
The fourth top team in the Premier ( best league in the world ) are there for a reason even if money buys success. Money buys success with most things in life sadly!
Leicester winning the Premier League - now that was a truly remarkable experience but had they won the FA Cup - many would have said big deal!
My point is that if the prize for winning the fa cup was a spot in the champions league it would greatly improve the quality and energy of the competition. Nobody believes that a team like Newport Count will ever win it but it’s the dream that makes the FA cup so compelling, They used to have the cup winners cup which was a step up from the Eufa cup but a step down from the European cup but then they merged it with the eufa cup anyway. But the European cup used to be just for national champions. So they have created this sort of quasi super league called the champions league but only about 20% of the teams are actually champions. So it’s all varying degrees of legitimacy and silliness depending on what you want to achieve. What they really want to achieve is a consistent cash cow for the ten or so biggest teams in Europe and they pretty much have achieved that. It’s sad that it’s at the expense of what was the best cup competition out there and really did mean something if you won it.