Up for the Cup

I feel I have to pass comment on the TV coverage of the 3rd round of the FA Cup over the weekend.

After going on about the history and heritage of the competition for weeks, both the BBC and BT Sports chose the dullest more unimaginative games to show live, full of the usual Premier League familiar faces, and ignoring the true romance of Barrow at home to Rochdale, or Lincoln away to Ipswich(!), rather than Citeh away to Wet Sham on Friday night, or Spurs v Villa on Sunday afternoon.

TV companies will try to pick games involving the big name teams, but that might be true of the league, but the cup? Surely its all about muddy, sloping pitches, crowd invasions, cardboard replicas of the cup wrapped in silver paper and rattles. Without those, its just another game to be squeezed in between the rounds of league football.

That the so-called big teams made up to 10 changes for the weekend games, thus Plymouth thought they were playing Liverpool, but ended up playing the Liverpool Academy side. That it ended up as a 0-0 draw is by the by, but now Klopp complains about another game: well, play a stronger team next time then!

These two things together will kill what is the oldest such competition in football, either rugby codes, Australian Rules, American Football, Gaelic Football, having been in existence since 1871, you would think would count for something, and teams would want to take part and win? But no, that relegation six-pointer next weekend seems to have more importance. And in the end, my generation who remember it as HE competition, of which the league and European football was a sideshow, this was the real deal, worth a six hour build up come final day, and sporting versions of your favourite game shows.

That I did other stuff rather than watch most of the live games says much about the poor quality of the fayre available.

The draw for the next round is MOnday night, and so expect the usual suspects to take part, now that much of the romance has lost out already.