No cup replays

[letchbee94]

Early 2000s I think?

[genevabee]

In France and Switzerland the lower-ranked team gets the choice of playing at home but matches can be switched for a variety of reasons, financial and logistical. In the first round in which the big boys entered the Swiss Cup this year, my local village side got drawn against the mighty (by Swiss standards) Servette, barely ten minutes up the road. The match was switched to the Stade de Genève because there was no way the minnows have the infrastructure to cope with more than a few hundred supporters.

[becbee]

In France and Switzerland the lower-ranked team gets the choice of playing at home but matches can be switched for a variety of reasons, financial and logistical. In the first round in which the big boys entered the Swiss Cup this year, my local village side got drawn against the mighty (by Swiss standards) Servette, barely ten minutes up the road. The match was switched to the Stade de Genève because there was no way the minnows have the infrastructure to cope with more than a few hundred supporters.

Wow, I know almost nothing about Swiss football but even I have heard of Servette. Didn't they play in Europe this season?
That must have been an amazing draw for your local village side. What was the score?

[northantsbee]

In France and Switzerland the lower-ranked team gets the choice of playing at home but matches can be switched for a variety of reasons, financial and logistical. In the first round in which the big boys entered the Swiss Cup this year, my local village side got drawn against the mighty (by Swiss standards) Servette, barely ten minutes up the road. The match was switched to the Stade de Genève because there was no way the minnows have the infrastructure to cope with more than a few hundred supporters.

I'd probably be in favour of this in the highly unlikely event that we got drawn at home to Tottenham or Arsenal... and we did set a precedent with Chelsea. In the replay vs no replay debate I can see see the argument for both. Rather than say one or the other why can't the two teams involved decide whether they want a replay or not before kick off? If the smaller club says yes, but the bigger club say no, the smaller club get's to chose the venue, home or away.

I can't remember teams complaining in the 1970's of playing too many games when some ties were going to four replays played on mud baths.

[DerekRocholl]

In France and Switzerland the lower-ranked team gets the choice of playing at home but matches can be switched for a variety of reasons, financial and logistical. In the first round in which the big boys entered the Swiss Cup this year, my local village side got drawn against the mighty (by Swiss standards) Servette, barely ten minutes up the road. The match was switched to the Stade de Genève because there was no way the minnows have the infrastructure to cope with more than a few hundred supporters.

I'd probably be in favour of this in the highly unlikely event that we got drawn at home to Tottenham or Arsenal... and we did set a precedent with Chelsea. In the replay vs no replay debate I can see see the argument for both. Rather than say one or the other why can't the two teams involved decide whether they want a replay or not before kick off? If the smaller club says yes, but the bigger club say no, the smaller club get's to chose the venue, home or away.

I can't remember teams complaining in the 1970's of playing too many games when some ties were going to four replays played on mud baths.

Obviously the relative amounts of TV money and global advertising available for different competitions has changed priorities, but clearly the pressure to stop having replays has been going on for some time, FA cup final replays were dispensed with in the late 1990s followed by semis and quarters earlier in this century, Premiership and EFL regularly field teams full of subs in the early rounds of the cup so it was only a matter of time before the remaining replays were dispensed with.

The real surprise, and the anomaly, is that they are seemingly going to continue in the qualifying rounds.

[genevabee]

In France and Switzerland the lower-ranked team gets the choice of playing at home but matches can be switched for a variety of reasons, financial and logistical. In the first round in which the big boys entered the Swiss Cup this year, my local village side got drawn against the mighty (by Swiss standards) Servette, barely ten minutes up the road. The match was switched to the Stade de Genève because there was no way the minnows have the infrastructure to cope with more than a few hundred supporters.

Wow, I know almost nothing about Swiss football but even I have heard of Servette. Didn't they play in Europe this season?
That must have been an amazing draw for your local village side. What was the score?

Yeah, we had a good run in Europe this year, going out to Plzen on penalties in the end. We were 26,000 for the visit of Rangers and 28,000 for the visit of Roma... these are unheard of numbers for football around here.

The cup game in question finished 8-0 to Servette and in all honesty it could have been a lot more.

(Full disclosure: I am a season-ticket holder for both Servette FC and Genève-Servette Hockey Club, currently (until this weekend) reigning Swiss and European champions).

[Mikel Bee]

This is what we are getting next season instead of replays.

https://theathletic.com/5450014/2024/04 ... mpetition/

"Adding insult to injury" springs to mind.

[John Hunt]

This is what we are getting next season instead of replays.

https://theathletic.com/5450014/2024/04 ... mpetition/

"Adding insult to injury" springs to mind.

No thank you.

[rudebwoyben]

I stopped attending any EFL Trophy matches as soon as the EPL U-21 sides were invited in. Why the fuck would I go and watch this?