Greg Dyke has welcomed a range of ideas from football fans outlining ways The FA Cup could be revolutionised.
The FA Chairman fielded questions from BBC Radio 5 live listeners immediately after watching Arsenal’s 4-2 semi-final penalty shootout victory over Wigan Athletic at Wembley Stadium.
“There’s something brilliant about The FA Cup which is that it’s a knockout”
Greg Dyke FA Chairman
Dyke, 66, joined presenter Darren Fletcher for a 606 FA Cup special live from the national stadium and you can read his responses to the ideas below.
Could you play the last three or four rounds of The FA Cup after the Premier League finishes and treat it as a Finals series or a tournament?
Dyke: “It’s a radical idea, let’s say that. Whether you could reorganise the fixture list to make that happen, I have my doubts. There’s something brilliant about The FA Cup which is that it’s a knockout – when you’re out you’re out – that’s it. It’s an interesting idea but I can’t see it taking place.
What is the public perception of The FA Cup as it stands now?
Dyke: “Well I’m quite an old bloke so you’ve got to go back to when I was a kid and in those days it was literally the only live football match on the television. Town centres were empty on the day of The FA Cup Final because it was the only live football that was on. We’re never going to go back to those days – it’s never going to be like that again.
“Next year, when the coverage of The FA Cup switches back to the BBC, I think, talking with them and with BT Sport, there will be a lot of ideas and a lot of new ways of promoting The FA Cup. The great thing about the BBC when I used to be director general was its marketing power. If we can get The FA Cup on all sorts of different programmes I think you’ll begin to see a revival of The FA Cup.
“I thought Wigan winning The FA Cup last season was a wonderful moment, it was a romantic moment – unless you were a Manchester City fan, in which case, you felt sick. But other than that it was a wonderful, romantic moment and that’s what I remember about The FA Cup.
“I always remember watching Sunderland beat Leeds when I was a student and I couldn’t have cared less about either of those sides but I was screaming at the television set and that’s what happens – that’s what’s exciting about the competition. You never want to lose that – the David versus Goliath – because if you lose that, it’s just like every other game.
Instead of playing the semi-finals at Wembley, why not have them played at neutral venues like Villa Park and Old Trafford, like they used to be, and keep Wembley special for the Final?
Dyke: “It’s part of the economics of building a stadium like this. The FA has to make enough money to pay for it but there were 80-odd thousand people here today – that’s an enormous turnout. Where else could you play it to get that sort of turnout? At Villa Park you’d get 40-50,000…that’s what’s interesting.”
“This is a tremendous stadium – it’s something special coming here”
Greg Dyke
What about the problems of teams in the north getting to and from Wembley?
Dyke: “I understand that point and it’s point in many ways. It is harder for Wigan fans and fans in the north to get down to London. The ironic thing is this is the furthest Arsenal have travelled so far this season in the whole competition – a trip down the North Circular – because all of their other matches have been at home. So I can understand that feeling but the excitement of coming to Wembley is still there. The excitement is a very important thing. If you’d spoken to Uwe Rosler today, it was a big and exciting moment for him to lead Wigan out at Wembley.
“The FA took a commitment when they built Wembley that the Semi-Finals would be at Wembley Stadium, so that’s where it is at the moment. Unless the contractual position changes I can’t see that happening. But if you talk to a lot of the players and fans who have come here today this is still an exciting moment and it’s an exciting moment because they’re coming to Wembley. This is a tremendous stadium – it’s something special coming here.”
Would you consider having the highest ranked team in the draw being forced to play away?
Dyke: “It’s quite complicated. Last year Brentford drew Chelsea at home and with 20 minutes to go were set to knock Chelsea out. Instead, Brentford went back to Stamford Bridge for a replay and for them going to Chelsea transformed their season financially. A lot of small clubs are in dire financial difficulties and getting drawn at an away ground really matters. I remember when Exeter played two games against Manchester United and that sort of money for a club like Exeter literally doubles their income for a season.
Could The FA give teams an extra league point for every round of The FA Cup they get through?
Dyke: “I’m not sure that would be fair. Teams spend all season trying to get out of the league they’re in – it’s a gruelling programme. I’m not sure it’s fair if you a team didn’t get promoted because someone beat somebody else in the second round of The FA Cup.
Could the winners of FA Cup get a Champions League place?
Dyke: “That’s not within our control – it’s under UEFA’s control. There’s nowhere in Europe that cup winners get into the Champions League. The FA doesn’t have the power to do that – it’s down to UEFA.
“We can certainly put the point forward – we’re throwing a lot of ideas around within The FA. There’s a big tradition with The FA Cup and people don’t want to lose that – but what would you have to change to make it a more exciting competition?
“We will take all of these ideas and throw them into our discussions. We could say to UEFA we would like that – I don’t think Premier League clubs would like that – but it’s not under our control.”
What about making the Final a 3pm kick-off and making it the last fixture of the season?
Dyke: “I agree with that – not necessarily moving it back to 3pm but certainly that we should try, if we can, so that the Final finishes the season off. That’s going to happen this year and it’s going to happen next year and we hope we can organise it for the future. I think that’s important.
“Having a kick-off at 5.15pm or 5.30pm rather than 3pm allows us to have a bigger audience and the broadcasters want that too. We want big audiences. It would be great if the Final could be the only match of the weekend, so that it then becomes an event, which is what it was like when I was a kid.
