I just noticed that I wrote the fewest posts (20) in 2018 of any year since I started this blog back in '09. It's not a lack of interest but a lack of time. I'll try to do better in 2019.
I'm starting off with the English FA Cup, the world's oldest soccer competition, dating back to 1871. It is open to all levels of English soccer, although the top two levels of pro teams, the Premier League and Championship teams do not enter until the third round.
Today's New York Times reports on how the Cup has diminished in appeal; in recent years, due in part to the fiscal lure of the Champions League for some of the top teams and of promotion to the Premier League for others. It is not unusual for a coach to rest his top players at a Cup match, saving them for a game that could mean promotion - or just staying in the Premier of Championship League. "Looked at from a distance, it is hard to see much magic left: teams of reserves contesting games they do not care about in front of half-empty stadiums, for the right to stay in a competition everyone involved sees as an afterthought," write Rory Smith and Tariq Panja in the Times.
The article focuses on Accrington Stanley, a Level 1 (i.e. Third Division) side that defeated Championship (Second) Division Ipswich Town, thus earning £125,000, 10 percent of its annual revenue, in one day. The take for the fourth round match could be 10 times that if Accrington draws one of the top Premier League teams and the match is televised. Should that be the case, no one will care if the other side sends its third string out.
Accrington will face either Derby County or the Premier League's Southampton in the next round. Those two sides will replay a third round draw with the winner advancing.
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