Don't ruin FA Cup final day again - once was enough (From The Northern Echo)

Don't ruin FA Cup final day again - once was enough

9:13am Sunday 15th May 2011 in Blog By Paul Fraser, Chief Football Writer

IT was 1986. With the sun shining, the Everton blue took on the Liverpool red underneath the Twin Towers at Wembley. An amazing occasion, an amazing game of football and a fitting FA Cup final won dramatically by Liverpool.

Football fans always remember their first FA Cup final. You might not have been there, but it's etched in the memory bank as if it was yesterday. That was mine.

On the way to Sunderland on Saturday, driving up the A19 for the lunch-time fixture with Wolves, there was a phone-in on a national radio station.

One broadcaster, not a punter, tried to make out the FA Cup final this season was still going to be a special day across the country.

That might have been the case for all of those people that didn't have another match to go to because, let's face it, the rest of us experienced had to have a break from the norm.

This year's FA Cup was special. It was special for everyone connected with Manchester City and Stoke City. But few else because the routines, the traditions were changed.

And for the thousands across the country who had other matches to attend, it might as well have not happened. This, though, could well be the beginning of the end for English football's Cup final day.

The Football Association appear to have already suggested to journalists that it will clash with Premier League fixtures again next year.

Initially this was going to be a one off. This season the showpiece had to be brought forward because the Champions League final will be played at Wembley and the venue needed two weeks preparation time.

But with the European Championships scheduled for next summer, the FA appear to have decided the best thing for England's chances of success is to make sure the FA Cup is not the final fixture of the season again.

With a major championship scheduled every two years, the FA are likely to opt for continuity long term and make the FA Cup final a fixture which takes place on a normal weekend annually.

It has happened before. Sunderland, for example, have played 37 times on an FA Cup final day. Interestingly and tellingly, though, the last time that happened was in 1951, before television came in to the equation.

The FA need to rethink this through. If they insist the final must be brought forward, then at least there should be a drive to ensure there are no other games played on the same day and it's played at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon.

Why Saturday's Premier League and play-off fixtures could not be moved to the Sunday is difficult to comprehend.

The FA Cup has been losing its appeal for years because of the riches on offer in the Premier League and Champions League. Let's hope its creators don't inflict further damage by making the FA Cup final just another scoreline rising up on a crammed vidiprinter.