Kind of a boss move to score the winner in a cup quarter against your biggest rival who happens to be the grandest club in the world then just walk off into the tunnel.
It seems like the decision to cancel replays is going to lead to some drama. Lots of negative responses coming from EFL clubs, think I’ve seen rumors of them withdrawing from the cup.
All the clubs are putting out some pretty strong statements. Which, as of right now, seems to be all they can do to at least generate more outcry.
It’s a silly threat. “We might lose an additional payout from a replay, we rely on this slim possibility to fund the existence of our club… so go ahead and burn all our payouts!”
Over the last decade, 228 replays have been played with just 19 of those featuring an EFL team away to a PL team. Idk, keep them for the early rounds to help the super low teams get a bump, but scheduling is a fucking nightmare and replays are part of the larger problem that is player injury risk. Not that the governing bodies are doing all that much to combat it as they invent new competitions and meaningless international games that simply must be played.
Imagine being on the side of the small clubs should be screwed so top tier can add more matches in UCL and shit
I don’t want them to add more matches at all, I want players to not be churned through this fucking meat machine.
Replays where you force an oil money club to play on some ground that hasn’t been mowed in a decade and wayward shots take out side mirrors in the parking lot is as fundamental to the English game as it gets. Of course there are good arguments for getting rid of a lot of them, but none outweigh the cost of losing them. More of the slow erosion of the pyramid system and community based clubs.
Maybe if the whole of the English pyramid had to get used to settling games with penalties more often, England wouldn’t be so shit at them in international competitions.
How are replays the problem? They've been around for over a century. It's adding all of those other matches that's causing the problem. Eliminate them.