The FA damages the Cup by scrapping replays. And harms itself.
The FA says it's For All. This decision suggests it's For The Elite Few.
Even 19 years on, it was one of those moments you never forget witnessing: Scott Hiley, Exeter City’s right-back, nutmegging Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo in a raucous FA Cup third-round replay at St James Park. “He’ll retire on that,” the BBC pundit Mark Lawrenson remarked of Hiley. “He can certainly dine out on that,” added John Motson, the commentator whose name was so redolent of the Cup, especially replays.
I went to that game in 2005, squeezing with 9,000 others into the shaking Conference ground. It was gloriously chaotic at times. “Tony Ellis, please come to the tunnel with the keys for the dressing rooms,” came the announcement shortly before kick-off. This was not simply about the ensuing 90 minutes. This was about the future of Exeter City.
That is why the Football Association’s surrender to the Premier League on Thursday over replays is so damaging, not simply emotionally but financially. The Premier League is giving an extra £33m to the lower orders to soften the blow of scrapping replays but that spreads thinly. Exeter’s replay helped bring in £700,000, wiping out their debt, securing their future, 18 months after facing oblivion. It also told the world that Exeter were alive and kicking.

The threat of a replay, an extra game, should focus elite managers’ minds on taking the Cup seriously. Play a strong team. After the draw at Old Trafford, Ferguson made no mistake at St James Park, restoring Ronaldo, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney and Gary Neville to the starting XI. “The red-faced shambles prompted the volatile Scot to unleash his big guns,” observed the match report proudly retained in the Grecian Archive.
Replays like this showed Ferguson the strong character of players like Ronaldo, who mainly gave Hiley a tough night, and Rooney, who made it 2-0 late on. “We’re going to win 3-2,” responded the Exeter fans but United went through. Replays, and visits to clubs down the pyramid, are important for those used to grander stages. No complacency allowed.
FA compliance to the Premier League badly dents the Cup. Why on earth is the Premier League ruling on replays in rounds one and two when its clubs do not join until the third? Answers on a postcard to the FA c/o the Premier League. EFL clubs should have been properly consulted, and their outrage is widespread. “Our football club, like many others, owes its past, its present and its future to the FA Cup replays that have now been taken away from us by those who sit at the very top of the game,” said Exeter in a joint statement with their Supporters’ Trust. “The televised replay against Manchester United helped keep the Club alive in the early years of supporter ownership.”
FA renunciation of its “For All” mantra damages the pyramid, and may encourage the elite to trample further on the English game. What next? The Community Shield moved to the USA? Possible. Stateside hunger for football – “soccer” - is huge, as seen by attendances at Premier League tour matches. A perceived competitive game like the Community Shield would be box office. Would the FA think about the regular match-going supporters of the two clubs? Or would it simply let the Premier League, and its growing band of American owners, move the game, knowing how lucrative it would be?
The ending of replays is designed to give time for England’s Champions League clubs to breathe in the congested calendar. It’s a decision made for the wealthy few affecting the less well-off many. So, 1) has the FA done enough to tackle Uefa and Fifa on expanding their competitions? And, 2) has the FA called to account Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United for heading off on an end-of-season jaunt to play each other in Melbourne on May 22? Just the 21,000-mile round trip. Think of the climate. Think of the England players. James Maddison, Anthony Gordon, Kieran Trippier and Nick Pope could have been resting before possible exertions at the Euros.
I asked Gareth Southgate about the trip after England’s last game against Belgium at Wembley. He’s always a measured voice. “Is that great news for us in terms of preparation? No. It’s going to happen more and more,” Southgate added of end-of-season friendlies. Goodbye Replay, hello Riyadh.
The joint statement from FA and Premier League confirmed who runs the game, and it is not the body founded in 1863, the supposed governors of the game. The Cup matters because the pyramid matters. It moulds players for elite clubs and for England. One of Southgate’s striking complement against Belgium, Ollie Watkins of Aston Villa, started his career at Exeter.
Others involved in that friendly last month include Jude Bellingham whose career began at Birmingham City, John Stones (Barnsley), Joe Gomez and Ezri Konsa (Charlton). On it goes: Maddison (Coventry), Jarrod Bowen (Hereford) and Ivan Toney (Northampton). Jordan Pickford has played from non-League to Premier League. Lewis Dunk’s first professional steps came in League One.
A reminder of the safety net provided for players by clubs down the pyramid came with the sight of Kwame Ampadu, a former Arsenal trainee, playing for Exeter against United. Exeter’s manager that night, Alex Inglethorpe, is now nurturing Liverpool’s next generation in their academy. The FA should (but won’t) think again about replays. Make them 90 minutes and straight to pens if need be. But keep them. Respect the Cup. Protect the pyramid. Stand up to the Premier League. Be stronger. For All.