Russybcool wrote:
Lieutenant Dan wrote:
DippyDon wrote:
That's what a number of clubs are exploring now
I wonder if the Man Utd case from 2000 gets wheeled out as a claim of legal precedent?
https://www.thesportsman.com/articles/remember-when-manchester-united-killed-the-fa-cupIgnore the whinging about going to London on a weeknight. It is the bit half way down that the FA forced Man Uniteds hand as Ferguson was convinced by David Davies and the government that it would derail the 2006 World Cup bid as if United hadn't have gone it would have been Bayern going instead. Considering United were FA Cup champions and have a good pedigree and in hindsight the Germans won the bid (apparently in controversial circumstances) anyway I don't think there is any precedent there from a United perspective. I mean United's hand seem like they were bound. If anything the FA destroyed the integrity of their own competition so they have previous by the sounds of it.
Yep. That "United dismissively devalued the FA Cup" is a huge myth.
As the article says, the FA wanted United to go to the Club World Cup to avoid derailing the world Cup bid. United also still wanted to participate in both and field a weakened, but potentially strong enough to get through, side in the FA Cup 3rd round as they'd have been back.for the 4th round - the same as Liverpool did a couple of years ago in the League Cup (though it was up to QF's by then and they lost heavily to Villa). However at that time fielding a weakened team wasn't a done thing in the FA Cup and wasn't deemed an acceptable solution by the FA so they had to pull out instead as the FA also wanted them not to miss the Club World Cup.
Why the FA thought United pulling out would be better for the competition than fielding a weakened side for one round - who would genuinely be trying to win the game - I don't know? But that was their stance and, like our history with AFC, people have believed and repeated the false narrative about United devaluing the Cup so much that it's just widely regarded as true despite the situation / facts being very different.
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