For the first time in its 153-year history, there will be no replay in the FA Cup after the first round has started in the 2024/25 season. In a new announcement made in collaboration with the FA and the Premier League, some major changes are set to come into force in the coming seasons; One of these is the cancellation of reruns.
FA Cup weekends reserved for the fourth round, fifth round and quarter-final will also come into play, with no Premier League fixtures scheduled for those weekends. Alongside this, the Premier League has made the decision to cancel the winter break and set a later August start date for the 2024/25 season, giving each player a consecutive three-week break following this summer’s European Championship.
The decision to eliminate replays will certainly please teams competing in European competitions who face the potential for their own schedules to be less condensed. Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was in favor of canceling replays of FA Cup fixtures and has somewhat gotten his wish as this season’s competition eliminated that factor from the fifth round onwards.
Asked if he was in favor of getting rid of replays, Klopp said: “Yes, I always was.” But discussing the importance of replays for clubs in the lower leagues, he added: “How often has a smaller club been successful because of that extra game?
“I know there’s money involved and that’s the way it is, but you have to find solutions. Nobody wants to kill the smaller clubs; they have the same right to exist as the rest of us.” As Klopp points out, the impact of this decision will be felt more at lower league clubs, who will be robbed of vital income-earning opportunities.
Keeping this in mind, football.london He offered some thoughts on whether the FA’s harsh decision was correct.
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Kieran Horn – Audience Writer
The decision to abolish FA Cup replays is very disappointing but hardly surprising. Given the way football is going, it seems imperative that anything is resolved that will benefit those at the top of the game, and this is no different.
Numerous lower league clubs benefited from FA Cup runs, with replays bringing in more revenue. Exeter City, for example, avoided complete dissolution in 2005 thanks to two matches against Manchester United in the FA Cup.
While Klopp’s displeasure is entirely valid, unraveling the condensed fixture schedule by ruling out the possibility of some big clubs playing a full season again sums up where the beautiful game has come.
Rather than removing fixtures elsewhere, the Champions League’s new format adds more games, showing those in power are making decisions that will generate more money for those at the top than those at the bottom. Frankly, it is a shame that this decision has been made, but it is still undoubtedly a decision that everyone saw coming.
Cash O’Sullivan – Multimedia Editor
It is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the love for the great game of football. With online discourse at extremes, ‘influencers’ deliberately manufacturing, clicks hotter than the core of the sun and the increasing inaccessibility of going to games, we then reach the governing bodies.
Next season’s Champions League will be a European Super League in all but name and now the FA is buckling under the weight of millions in the Premier League to crack down on the world’s oldest cup competition. This move only serves to aid the richest in the game and removes a feature that has seen iconic and historic moments in English football and even saved football clubs from extinction!
Yet much of the spirit of the beautiful game is fading.
Lee Wilmot – Head of London Football
Ah, football in the modern world. Is nothing sacred anymore? Aren’t there still traditions we can love and value?
The Premier League rules everything; It’s been like this for years, but I can’t help but miss some of the past.
It has now been decided that replays in the FA Cup will be canceled from the first round onwards. This was always going to be the case at some point. We took them from round five, which seemed fair, but taking them out from round one?
The FA Cup has always been regarded as the biggest domestic cup competition in the world; here small clubs can tame the giants as they progress through the qualifying rounds to meet the big players. Look at what my hometown team Maidstone United have done this season.
As a journalist, I have worked my way up the ladder from non-league to where I am now. The FA Cup means so many things to so many people, away from the big men of the Premier League. Replays offer non-league teams the chance to generate much-needed income. If they can get a draw in the first match, they will be out one day. Removing this feels like removing the essence of the FA Cup. A sad day indeed.