April 18, 2024, 11:19 BST
Updated 2 hours ago
image source, Getty Images
image description, Manchester City won the men's FA Cup final in 2023
FA Cup replays will be scrapped from the first round in the 2024-25 competition.
All rounds of the Emirates FA Cup are also played on weekends, including the fifth round, which has been played during the week for the last five seasons.
The changes are part of a new six-year agreement between the Football Association (FA) and the Premier League.
The Premier League has also removed its mid-season break from the calendar.
The Games will begin in mid-August after a consecutive three-week summer break instead of a shorter rest period in the winter, with the decision based on “expert advice from the medical and technical departments”.
In its current format, there are no replays in the FA Cup from the fifth round onwards, but the FA says the move to scrap them from an earlier stage is “in light of the changes to the calendar caused by UEFA's expanded competitions.” “, was undertaken.
Uefa launched the Europa Conference League in 2021 and the number of teams in the Champions League group stage will rise from 32 to 36 next season, while Fifa has announced an expanded 32-team Club World Cup for 2025 .
What are the new FA Cup rules?
In the FA Cup qualifying rounds, in which teams from the fifth to tenth tiers of English football compete for 32 places in the first round, there are still replays if there is a draw after 90 minutes.
EFL chief executive Trevor Birch said the decision to scrap replays from the first round was “frustrating and disappointing” and that the EFL would “look for appropriate compensation arrangements”.
He added: “This represents another lost traditional revenue stream for EFL clubs, at a time when the financial gap between the biggest clubs and those further down the pyramid is widening than ever before.”
This season's FA Cup winners will receive £2 million, while non-league or lower league clubs will receive prize money and potential broadcast revenue with each round they progress.
In the first round of the FA Cup, professional teams from the first and second divisions compete, and from the third round onwards teams from the Championship and the Premier League join.
Further changes mean that the fourth and fifth rounds and the quarter-finals will be played without clashing with Premier League games for the first time.
The fourth round will be played in an extended time window from Friday to Wednesday.
The FA Cup final has also been moved to the penultimate weekend of the Premier League season.
It will be played on a Saturday and, like the Friday before the final, will be independent of Premier League games “to allow focus on preparation for the showpiece event”.
The agreement also sees the Premier League increase its funding for grassroots football, providing an additional £33 million.
“The FA Cup is our greatest asset,” said FA chief executive Mark Bullingham.
“This new agreement between the FA and the Premier League strengthens the FA Cup and gives this very special tournament exclusive weekends in an increasingly busy calendar.”
“A short-sighted move” – reaction
Sheffield United head coach Chris Wilder said he wished the FA Cup structure had stayed as it was.
“As always, the game is dictated and dominated by the big boys and the big boys don’t want FA Cup repeats, do they?” Wilder said.
“I'm a traditionalist and would have liked to see it that way, but the game goes on and lasts longer.” [are being played] in the game that people want to defend themselves against.
Tranmere Rovers vice-chairman Nicola Palios accused the FA and Premier League of reaching an agreement “to further adapt at the expense of the rest of the football pyramid”.
“Seven hundred and twenty-nine teams compete in the FA Cup. Why is its format dictated by the Premier League, which is about… [about] 3% of that? Protest is necessary!” Palios added.
Maheta Molango, chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association, said football needed “a collective approach” to the global match calendar and “not a fight over available dates”.
He added: “The current unsustainable approach to the calendar must be viewed as a problem for every club at all levels if we are to continue to protect our domestic competitions.”
Fair Game CEO Niall Couper said the decision “deprives lower league clubs of a much-needed source of income” and was a “short-sighted move that does nothing to strengthen the game”.
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