FA Cup

ASTON VILLA are in a fight to save their FA Cup tie with Liverpool after a “significant” coronavirus outbreak at the club.
Villa and the FA held emergency talks on Thursday, with the club set to field a team of kids unless another round of testing KO’s the third-round clash.

Credit: Reuters

Their Bodymoor Heath training ground was closed after a large number of first-team players and staff tested positive.
It prompted Fulham’s Kevin McDonald to hit out at football carrying on as Covid-19 cases soar, calling the situation “shambolic” and claiming players are being “treated like guinea pigs”.
Shrewsbury’s match with Southampton on Saturday has already been postponed following an outbreak at the League One club.
Doubts also hang over Middlesbrough’s game at Brentford, while Derby will field a shadow side against non-league Chorley.

Clubs face forfeiting their place in the competition if ties cannot go ahead.
Villa’s entire first-team squad are now isolating, putting Wednesday’s home Premier League game against Tottenham, and next Saturday’s home clash with Everton, in doubt and sparking another fixture crisis.
In a joint statement, Villa and the FA revealed they are “working closely together to try to ensure” the Liverpool game can go ahead at Villa Park.
But final confirmation will only be made “pending results of additional Covid-19 testing”.

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If the game does survive, Under-23 coach Mark Delaney will be in charge of a youth team, with boss Dean Smith and assistants John Terry, Richard O’Kelly and Craig Shakespeare all in isolation.
A Villa statement read: “We have closed Bodymoor Heath training ground after a significant coronavirus outbreak.
“A large number of first-team players and staff returned positive tests after being routinely tested on Monday and went into isolation.
“A second round of testing was carried out immediately and produced more positive results.
“First-team training ahead of the FA Cup match with Liverpool was cancelled.
“Discussions are on- going between medical representatives of the club, the FA and the Premier League.”

It is ironic that Liverpool crashed to a 5-0 defeat at Villa Park 13 months ago in the quarter-final of the Carabao Cup.
That was when boss Jurgen Klopp fielded the Anfield club’s youngest-ever starting line-up while he was in Qatar with the first team in the Club World Cup.
Fulham’s Scottish midfielder McDonald, 32, fumed on Instagram at the crisis.
McDonald, who could play in the third-round tie at QPR, wrote: “How many more outbreaks and training ground closures until football needs to stop?
“Shambolic! Literally treated like guinea pigs!”
Fulham had their own outbreak last month which saw their Motspur Park training ground deep cleaned and games against Spurs and Burnley postponed.
Further FA Cup postponements threaten to make a mockery of the competition.
The Shrews’ game with Southampton was KO’d by a “significant number” of positive cases.
The FA said the League One side “did not have a sufficient amount of fit, non-isolating players who would be able to play”.

A final decision on whether to award the Saints a walkover will be taken by the Professional Game Board next week.
Oldham’s home tie with Bournemouth has been switched to the Cherries because of a frozen pitch at Boundary Park.
In the women’s game, Reading’s Emma Mitchell slammed the postponement of Manchester City and Arsenal’s weekend games.
Four unnamed City players tested positive for Covid-19 after reportedly jetting off to Dubai.
One Gunners player has since tested positive after allegedly also going to Dubai, along with two other senior players.
Royals ace Mitchell tweeted “Different rules for different teams.”

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BETWEEN them, Aston Villa and Liverpool have lifted the FA Cup 14 times — towering achievements in the histories of two of England’s grandest clubs.
So tonight’s tie was to be a highlight of third-round weekend, especially after Dean Smith’s men had trounced the champions 7-2 on their previous visit to Villa Park in October.

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These moments like Ronnie Radford scoring for non-league Hereford to beat Newcastle in 1972 might never be repeatedCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
Yet after a significant Covid outbreak ruled out several Villa players and caused the closure of their training ground, the club are likely to field a team of youth players, led by Under-23s boss Mark Delaney, with Smith and assistant John Terry self-isolating.
And should many of those younger players receive positive Covid tests today, Villa may well have to forfeit the tie.
The devaluation of the Cup has been clear and obvious for two decades now — and the Covid era is only hastening its demise.

No club is being asked to forfeit three Premier League points because of infections.
Those league matches which have already been postponed and those under threat — such as Villa’s clash with Tottenham on Wednesday — will be staged at later dates, even though fixture lists are full to bursting point.
But, as usual, the dear old FA Cup can go hang.
There is barely any room for the world’s oldest knockout competition.

And this is not merely a product of Covid.

Bradford completed a stunning come-from-behind 4-2 win at Chelsea in 2015Credit: Phil Shephard-Lewis – The Sun

Manchester City’s Bert Trautmann broke his neck but was still desperate to carry on in 1956Credit: Hulton Archive – Getty

Last season, Jurgen Klopp sent out a youth team, managed by Liverpool Under-23s boss Neil Critchley, to defeat Shrewsbury 1-0 in a fourth-round replay, while the first team had a winter break.
After a Covid flare-up at Shrewsbury this week, the League One side’s third-round visit to Southampton has been called off — with the Shrews waiting to discover if they will be booted out of the competition.
Meanwhile, Wayne Rooney and his Derby County first- team will not make the trip to National League North side Chorley, due to another Covid outbreak, with a Rams youth side playing in their place.
Before the debacle over last season’s FA Cup tie with Shrewsbury, Liverpool had been forced to field their kids for a 5-0 Carabao Cup quarter-final defeat at Villa Park, while Klopp’s men contested the Fifa Club World Cup in Qatar.

Stanley Matthews led Blackpool to a famous win against Bolton in 1953Credit: Popperfoto
So Klopp can argue that what was good enough for Liverpool in the League Cup, should be good enough for Villa now, after their Covid cases.
If that means another reduction to the FA Cup’s status, it will only be part of a long-term trend — dating back to holders Manchester United being excused the task of defending the trophy in 1999-2000, so that they could compete in Fifa’s Club World Championship.
At this time of year, older fans start getting misty-eyed about the Cup’s glory days — especially third-round giant-killings like Hereford’s 1972 defeat of Newcastle.
Yet that greatest FA Cup upset had suffered FIVE postponements — two for the original match, three for the replay — before Ronnie Radford’s immortal equaliser and Ricky George’s winner.

Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang stunned Liverpool in 1988Credit: PA:Empics Sport
Now, there does not seem enough room in the calendar for even one postponement.
And while an unusually open Premier League title race is gripping the nation, even during this grim behind-closed-doors era, the FA Cup without fans is a different matter.
We recall Radford’s equaliser so fondly, not just for the howitzer velocity of his shot, but also the unfettered glee of those mudlark kids, many in parka jackets, rushing on to Edgar Street’s swampy pitch, to mob their hero.
In an age of empty stadia and social distancing, footage of Ronnie’s rocket feels particularly poignant this year.

In 1923, 200,000 people turned up to watch the FA Cup finalCredit: Hulton Archive – Getty
When Merseyside club Marine, from the eighth tier of English football, face Tottenham on Sunday, it will bring the largest gulf in league positions between third-round opponents in the competition’s history.
This is a tie which could have been hand-picked to restore the romance of the tarnished Cup.
It will pit football’s most famous boss, Jose Mourinho, and England’s captain, Harry Kane, against a team from the Northern Premier League Division One North West, who include binmen, NHS workers and teachers — the front-line heroes of the pandemic.
When the draw was made last month, a smattering of supporters was still allowed inside grounds on Merseyside.

Ricky Villa was magic for Tottenham against Manchester City in 1981Credit: Hulton Archive – Getty
Yet the tie must now be played without the anticipatory buzz of a crowd daring to dream impossible dreams — an enormous factor in the anatomy of any Cup shock.
So, too, that sense of smalltown community which can grip the lowly hosts of a major footballing power in third-round week.
“The bunting’s out, isn’t it?” as Paul Whitehouse’s Ron Manager would say on The Fast Show, gently mocking the FA Cup nostalgics.
Well there’s no bunting, no fans, no true sense of occasion, this year.
And the further the Cup is devalued by youth teams, walkovers and byes, the graver the doubts over its long-term future.

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SAM ALLARDYCE goes back to where it all began tomorrow — with every indication he is heading for a fall.
Blackpool, the first club he  managed back in the mid-1990s, lie 13th in League One.

Sam Allardyce has been given backing ahead of Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola to save West Brom’s seasonCredit: AFP

But Neil Critchley’s Tangerines are bound to fancy their chances against Big Sam’s strugglers West Brom.
Since Allardyce took over at the relegation–threatened Baggies on December 16, they have taken one point in four games, scored one goal and conceded 13.
Home defeats of 5-0 to Leeds and 4-0 to Arsenal prove to some critics he is too long in the tooth to repeat the rescue missions he pulled off at Crystal Palace, Sunderland and Everton.
And an FA Cup third-round defeat to a club hardly setting the world on fire would be a disaster.

But former Seasiders defender Andy Morrison insists 66-year-old Allardyce is still up for a fight.
Morrison was signed by Big Sam from Blackburn in December 1994, five months after he took over at Bloomfield Road.
And the 50-year-old said: “I can’t think of anyone better equipped to keep up West Brom than Sam. I sat down with him only a few weeks ago when he was still out of work.
“He is as fresh as ever, as aware of what needs to be done as anyone in the game. Nobody should be fooled by what he has taken on this time.

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Andy Morrison is confident old boss Big Sam will prevent West Brom from being relegatedCredit: Getty Images – Getty

“West Brom are the most disjointed Premier League team I’ve seen in years. Jose Mourinho, Louis van Gaal, Pep Guardiola would go in there and struggle. So he has a huge job on his hands but if anybody can do it, it’s Big Sam.”
Allardyce made Morrison the Seasiders £245,000 record signing 26 years ago and then skipper.
The Scotsman, who played under Sir Kenny Dalglish at Rovers, also went on to captain Huddersfield and Manchester City.
Morrison, who is the boss of Connah’s Quay Nomads, had his most recent meeting with Allardyce to ask his advice on how to take the Welsh champions forward.
He added: “When I first got to Blackpool I was blown away by his whole ethos. We were being given nutrition drinks after training, rehab after training, the cool downs to  protect our bodies from muscle injury.
“His detail and analysis were huge, even then. It was completely new to me.
“Even though I was at Blackburn under Kenny Dalglish and Ray Harford, Big Sam was miles ahead of them in his understanding of nutrition, care of the body, the importance of cooling down as well as warming up.
“Medical science in sport was huge to him even back then when very few other managers were even  talking about it. I was lucky enough to pick his brains a few weeks ago and what struck me was how incredibly aware he is.

West Brom first face Neil Critchley’s Blackpool in the FA CupCredit: Getty Images – Getty
“He always gets the best out of the group — whatever the maximum potential is, he always finds it.
“My worry is the maximum  capabilities of West Brom are not enough to stay in the league.
“But for tactical analysis, understanding what makes players tick and preparation for a game, I never worked with anyone better.”
Morrison’s faith in Allardyce is backed by his former Tangerines team-mate Andy Preece, who Allardyce signed from Crystal Palace.
The former midfielder is assistant manager of non-league Chorley and will be hoping to see off Wayne Rooney’s Covid-hit Derby tomorrow.
Preece, 53, said: “You look back to Big Sam and say ‘Wow!’.
“I remember at Blackpool things like recovery drinks, people coming in to improve our fitness, he was quite big on the science.
“These things weren’t happening at Palace in the Premier League — but  he had them in League One.”

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SHREWSBURY face being booted out of the FA Cup after being unable to field a team against Southampton because of Covid-19.
Aston Villa are also at risk after the club announced on Thursday it has closed its Bodymoor Heath training ground because of a coronavirus outbreak.

Shrewsbury face being booted out the FA Cup by the Professional Game BoardCredit: Getty Images – Getty

Wembley chiefs said the final decision on the Shrews will be taken by the Professional Game Board next week.
But who is on the Board? SunSport explains here.
Peter McCormick: Long-standing Premier League solicitor and board member who is currently acting chairman of the FA following Greg Clarke’s resignation.
Rebecca Caplehorn: One of Spurs chief exec Daniel Levy’s key lieutenants in N17 after joining from QPR in 2015.

Paul Barber: Brighton chief executive who formerly served on the boards of Spurs – under Levy – and the FA.

Brighton chief exec Paul Barber is one of the membersCredit: PA:Press Association
Phil Alexander: More than two decades as chief executive at Crystal Palace.
Made one appearance for Norwich, played for a number of non-league clubs and the London Monarchs American Football side.
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Rick Parry: EFL chairman who fought and won the bail-out battle with the Prem.
Was the first chief executive of the Prem and also served on Liverpool’s board.

Rick Parry will also be part of the decision making processCredit: PA:Press Association
Mark Ashton: Bristol City chief executive who rejoined the club from a similar role at Oxford in 2016. On the EFL board.
Jez Moxey: Much-travelled administrator and former basketball player now at Burton after spells at Rangers, Stoke, Wolves and Norwich.
John Nixon: Currently ‘director of external affairs’ and co-owner at Carlisle after filling a number of roles at the Cumbrian club.
Was an executive with Pirelli tyre company.
ASTON VILLA COVID CLOSURE
Villa are said to host Liverpool in the third round of the FA Cup on Friday which could now be at risk.
And on Thursday, a club statement read: “Aston Villa can confirm the club has closed its Bodymoor Heath training ground after a significant Coronavirus outbreak.
“A large number of first team players and staff returned positive tests after being routinely tested on Monday and immediately went into isolation.
“A second round of testing was carried out immediately and produced more positive results today.
“First team training ahead of Friday’s FA Cup match with Liverpool was cancelled.
“Discussions are ongoing between medical representatives of the Club, the Football Association and the Premier League.”

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