May 2 – Eleven English Football League clubs and 16 from the non-league pyramid have joined forces to call for the reinstatement of FA Cup replays.
Campaign group Fair Game and clubs across the country are demanding an amendment to the Football Governance Bill to protect FA Cup replays after a decision to scrap them.
Currently there are no replays from the fifth round onwards, but getting rid of them from the first round has provoked anger from clubs further down the pyramid for whom replays are often a vital lifeline.
More than 20 clubs have sent a letter to the government after the Football Association announced last month that replays would not feature from the first round onwards next season because of pressure on the calendar.
Smaller clubs say replays are a vital source of income while traditionalists say that scrapping them diminishes the romance of the world’s oldest knockout competition.
The English Football League, which runs the second, third and fourth tiers, insist they had not approved the changes and that they had been agreed by the FA and Premier League.
Four-time FA Cup winners Bolton Wanderers are one of the clubs to have signed the letter to UK government Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer backing calls for the amendment which would require a majority of clubs to agree before any change to the competition.
“We want to save the FA Cup. The FA Cup is the oldest football competition in the world and the decision to remove FA Cup replays from the first-round proper further undermines its prestige and does nothing to help protect our cherished football pyramid,” the letter said.
“The Premier League’s influence in this decision is yet another example of football’s growing divide that has seen the gaps between and within divisions grow at all levels.
“Participating clubs in the FA Cup were not consulted. Our clubs as well as the fans have been let down.”
Niall Couper, CEO of Fair Game, said the anger over the decision was huge across all levels of football.
“The new regulator needs to step in and reverse that damaging trend that is destroying the game’s heritage and turning the pyramid into a greasy pole,” he said.
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