The Tragic Of The FA Cup

Last night, the second string of Premier League strugglers Leicester City took on the reserves of Championship promotion hopefuls Derby County. The game was televised on the most watched TV channel at prime viewing time.

The two between them changed 18 of the 22 starters from their League matches at the weekend.

What has the FA Cup become?

The winners of the FA Cup Final receive £1.8million in prize money. That figure is only around a third of what a Championship club receives each year in TV revenue. You are more richly rewarded for finishing 21st in the Championship, 41st in the overall football pyramid, than you are by winning the "World's premier cup competition".

Ten years ago, Manchester United and Arsenal were lambasted for fielding weakened sides in the competition with the riches of the Champions League more appealing. Now, with the ever increasing TV revenue in the domestic game, sides from the second and third tiers are fielding weakened sides in this once prestigious competition.

There have been many calls that the only way to halt the slide into indifference is to hand a Champions League place to the winners of the FA Cup. It seems debatable that the great and good of European football would want to risk such an option, since the riches involved in that competition rely on having the big drawing clubs in the competition.

The winners of the FA Cup have, primarily, been one of the major clubs. Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Man City have won 19 of the last 21 finals. The other two winners were the deeply unfashionable Wigan and Portsmouth - now both residing well outside the top flight. However it is often one of the unfashionable clubs that makes the final to meet the eventual winner.

In the last 15 years two clubs have reached the final from outside the Premier League. This season half of the Fifth Round qualifiers are from outside the Premier League. Every one is facing a Premier League side in that round. The Sixth Round may not even feature a top flight side, however the major guns of English football are still in the draw and are likely to progress despite fielding weak sides in prior rounds.

The cream rises to the top, but the milk is very much off.