THE FA Cup is a sports institution that should be left alone to warm our winters — as it has for well over 150 years.
This may appear an obvious statement, except that there are continuing whispers it should be trimmed further to make room for competitions without particular history or prestige.
It took a foreigner, Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag, to sum up the affection that most of us have for it.
After beating third-tier Wigan, he said: “It is a massive competition and everyone wants to win the FA Cup. We take it seriously.”
So we should. United have won the Cup 12 times — bettered only by Arsenal’s 14.
But the essence is that any club from tiers one to eight has a chance to play in a Wembley final.
Without replays, it would be stunted and, for the underprivileged, a loss of revenue.
Maidstone United were the non-league tiddlers to survive the third round.
Let George Elokobi, Maidstone’s boss, explain the true meaning of the Cup: “It is magic. This is what it does.
“It just brings our community and binds us together. It makes us even stronger — inspiring the younger generation.”
Perhaps it takes an aspiring boss from Cameroon, albeit with plenty of Premier League experience, to capture the dimension of our annual knockout wonder.
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Yet the ex-Wolves star’s view is not necessarily shared by owners whose sentiments are often, “Who cares about a silly old competition”.
Well, I do and so do millions of English and Welsh men and women.
I also care that it helps spread down money to lower leagues as all gate revenue is shared.
There is too much talk of following the Scottish FA this season in cutting out replays and deciding ties with penalties.
This is both unfair on the away team and ridiculous, almost akin to Parliament scotching by-elections and reintroducing rotten boroughs.
Penalties provide a quick fix of excitement — but they hardly add up to justice for all.
As for deciding the World Cup on penalties, that gets more absurd the longer that the contest goes on.
There has to be a better method, although time is limited to a month and rules out full replays.
It’s true that replays do not aid long-term programming. We have one at Bristol City next week and, of course, we want to go through.
We’d love to win the FA Cup, we know that would brighten the lives of Hammers fans.
It is something to brag about for the rest of your life, just as winning the European trophy did last season.
The Robins will make an extra sum, an important factor the further down the eight qualifying divisions you go.
Until the 90s there were as many replays as necessary. Heaven help us from a repeat of the record.
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One is fun but let’s have no more interference in our world’s oldest football competition.
Watch this week’s brilliant episode of the Tap In – SunSport’s exclusive new football show.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
