The oldest football club competition in the world is at serious risk in the future if this season’s edition is scrapped because of the coronavirus pandemic according to one pundit.
TalkSPORT’s Simon Jordan clearly doesn’t want to consider what would happen to the prestige of the FA Cup if the game’s lawmakers decide to scrap the later rounds of the 2020/21 competition to ease expected fixture congestion.
“Why should it be scrapped?” he said to co-host, Jim White, on talkSPORT radio, cited by talkSPORT.
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“Everything is diminished, Jim. All our lives have been diminished by coronavirus, but if you allow the elite cup tournament in his country to be marginalised because it supports alternative agendas…
“Yes it’s been compromised slightly, but everything is compromised.
“[…] Why don’t we scrap other tournaments, why don’t we scrap the Champions League as well, then? That’s going to be compromised as well…
“I know why and I’ll tell you, because the TV companies pony up millions and millions and millions of pounds to Champions League participants and they will put their sides out come rain or come shine.
“We have to play these games in the condition we find ourselves in, and everyone is on a level playing field with their circumstances.
“Unfortunately it’s the way the world looks right now, but we can’t lose a tournament.”
Jordan, an acquired taste for many owing to his outspoken nature, makes some valid points.
If the FA Cup is no longer sacrosanct, where do you draw the line?
Whilst it’s blindingly obvious that extreme care must be taken by everyone, pulling the FA Cup doesn’t make an awful lot of sense.
For one, it would deny certain clubs the ability to be able to use some fringe players in the earlier rounds, to give them much needed game time.
Though that’s the tip of the iceberg, of course, as there are many cogent arguments to be made to say the competition for 2020/21 and beyond.