FA Cup

Factual Questions
1

I was watching Burnley and Liverpool play in the third round of the FA Cup last night. It raised a few of questions:

  • Does every team in England enter the FA Cup, or is it an elective tournament?
  • How many rounds are there?
  • Are they all “home and home” series, that is, do they play a leg in each team’s home field, and is this consistent throughout the tournament?
  • What does “replay” mean in context of the FA Cup?
  • How do cards carry through the tournament and do they affect regular match play at all?

Lastly, and this is perhaps more opinion than fact, how seriously do the premiership teams take this tournament? It seemed, to some extent, that Liverpool wasn’t trying that hard. Do they not field their best team? Or is it more of a matter of the lower division teams have more to gain and play extremely hard, in order to earn team and personal recognition?

2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FA_Cup has plenty of answers, but anyway:

All teams from the major divisions enter, along with hundreds of smaller amateur teams. Their standing in the multitude of FA league systems defines which round they join the tournament in - there’s about 6 preliminary rounds for the no-hopers before the ‘first round proper’ when the lower two of the main four divisions join the fun. The top two divisions join in the third round proper, so they’re six matches away from the final.

Each leg is played at one ground only - in each pairing, the team out of the hat first is the home team. Replays occur when a match is drawn, and are held at the other ground. A replay goes to extra time & penalties if necessary.

3

I didn’t watch the match, but it’s often the case that better teams will field a squad of players who don’t normally get a game when playing in the Premiership when playing against teams from lower divisions.

4

That explains why Man Utd is playing a replay against Exeter or Phillips or the Sisters of Mercy or somesuch team then.

5

That is true, but every team wants to progress in the FA cup. In the case of Liverpool they just judged it wrong. The same also happened with Man. U. They are playing again tonight after only managing a draw against non league Exeter. The top sides like to field a 2nd side against lower opposition so their best players are in top form in the premiership. Sometimes it backfires. Tonight Man. U. manager Alex Fergusson is taking no chances and is playing a near top squad.

6

As far as I know, suspensions picked up in League matches apply to FA Cup games - if they crop up in the roster - as they do to League matches (and League Cup matches). (International matches are separate.)

In the same way, yellow or red cards picked up in FA Cup matches will be part of the totting up process for all other domestic matches, so that if a player picks up his fifth yellow card of the season in an FA Cup game he will receive a one-match suspension.