EXTRA TIME

The End of the Replays

August 14, 2020 at 6:41 am Leave a comment

The Football Association has scrapped the FA Cup’s 149 year old tradition of replays to ease scheduling pressure because of the delayed start to the new season.

FA Cup fixtures resulting in a draw (after normal time) traditionally have gone to a replay, played at the venue of the away team, at a later date; if that replay is still tied, the winner is settled by a period of extra time, and if still necessary, a penalty shootout. The first FA Cup Final to go to a replay was the 1875 final, between the Royal Engineers and the Old Etonians.

But within the last decades, due to the inflation of football fixtures, especially because of implementing group stages in the European Cup competitions, the FA has step by step disposed of the replays and now has scrapped them entirely for the upcoming season.

Until 1990–91, further replays would be played until one team was victorious. Some ties took as many as six matches to settle; in their 1975 campaign, Fulham played 12 games over six rounds, which remains the most games played by a team to reach a final. Replays were traditionally played three or four days after the original game, but from 1991–92 they were staged at least 10 days later on police advice for the rounds proper. This led to penalty shoot-outs being introduced, the first of which came on 26 November 1991 when Rotherham United eliminated Scunthorpe United.

From 1980–81 to 1998–99, the semi-finals which are played at a neutral venue went to extra time on the day if the score after 90 minutes was a draw. If the score was still level after extra time, the match would go to a replay. Replays for the semi-finals were scrapped for 1999–2000, the last semi-final to go into a replay was in 1998–99 when Manchester United beat Arsenal 2–1 after extra time. The first game had ended in a 0–0 draw.

Since 2016–17, ties have been settled on the day from the quarter-finals onwards, using extra time and penalties. From 2018–19, Fifth Round (round of last 16) ties have also been settled by extra time and penalties.

In the Netflix Series “The English Game“ a replay is taking place between Darwen FC with the first professional players, Fergus “Fergie” Suter and James “Jimmy” Love from Scotland, and the Old Etonians with their captain Arthur Kinnaird (originally played in the 1878/79 FA Cup). While Old Etonians were an upper class football team (the cradle of modern football being private schools and universities), Darwen FC was a working class factory team, the Netflix series is showing how football developed to be the most popular sports with working class people: “Football nourishes their soul,“ someone says in one of the episodes. In the last episode of this mini series Suter wins the FA Cup with Blackburn.

The end of the FA Cup replays came step by step within the last decades, and now replays were scrapped entirely to ease pressure on available match dates due to the delayed start of the season because of Premier League’s coronavirus break from 10 March until 16 June 2020.

The last replayed final was the 1993 FA Cup Final, when Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday fought a 1–1 draw. The replay saw Arsenal win the FA Cup, 2–1 after extra time.

The last quarter-final to go to a replay was Manchester United vs West Ham United in the 2015–16 FA Cup with the Hammers being at the losing end: they achieved a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford (video) , but were eliminated due to a 1-2 defeat at Upton Park, this game being the last FA Cup tie played at the Boleyn Ground.

Prize money for the FA Cup winners will be cut by around half due to financial pressure on the governing body’s budget.

Preliminary qualifying begins on Sept 1, with the FA Cup final taking place on May 15, while the first four rounds of the Carabao Cup will take place in September.

League Cup scraps two leg semi-finals

The Carabao Cup will no longer stage semi-finals over two legs in the 2020/21 season.The FA is cutting 124 jobs in the biggest cost-saving drive in its history, following a projected £300 million loss because of Covid-19.

Match dates 2020/21

The Premier League, English Football League and FA all confirmed their match dates yesterday. England’s top tier kick off on Sept 12, with the last game of the season just 19 days before the rearranged European Championship begins in Rome on June 11 2021.

The Premier League needs 34 weekends and four midweek match days for its campaign, leaving the earliest end date as May 23. Its full fixture schedule for all 380 matches will be announced by Aug 21.

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