Staff Reporter.
FA Cup replays will be scrapped from the first round next season as part of a six-year agreement with the Premier League to strengthen the domestic competition, the English Football Association (FA) announced on Thursday.
The FA added that all rounds of the Emirates FA Cup will also be played on weekends, including the fifth round which has been played in midweek for the past five seasons.
The mid-season break was also removed from the calendar, in order to allow the Premier League to start in mid-August and provide a longer close-season break.
The gradual removal of replays from the later FA Cup rounds was criticised, with some commentators saying it is another erosion of the importance of the world’s oldest domestic club competition.
In its current format, the FA Cup has no replays from the fifth round onwards, but the FA says the move to eliminate them from an earlier stage has been made “in light of changes to the calendar driven by the expanded Uefa competitions”.
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 FA Cup new rules?
The FA Cup qualifying rounds – where teams from the fifth to the 10th tiers of English football compete for 32 spots in the first round – will still have replays when ties are level after 90 minutes.
EFL chief executive Trevor Birch said the decision to scrap replays from the first round is “frustrating and disappointing” and that the EFL will be “seeking appropriate compensation arrangements”.
The winners of this season’s FA Cup get £2m, while non-league and lower league clubs get prize money and potential broadcast revenue with each round they progress.
The first round of the FA Cup sees professional teams from League One and League Two enter, with Championship and Premier League teams joining from the third round.
Other changes will see the fourth and fifth rounds, and the quarter-finals, played without clashing with any Premier League fixtures for the first time.
The fourth round will be played in an extended 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 will also be independent of any Premier League matches, as will the Friday before the final “to allow focus on the build-up to the showpiece event”.
The agreement also sees the Premier League increasing its funding to grassroots football, with an additional £33m being provided.
“The FA Cup is our biggest 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.”
Compiled by Lehlohonolo Lehana.