The FA Cup runneth under
High Protein Beef Paste Issue 1
Hi. Welcome. Happy New Year.
This is the first issue of yet another Substack newsletter. You know the score. Let’s get on with it.
The FA Cup runneth under
On Friday night the FA Cup Third Round gets underway with Manchester United v Everton.
Far from the spotlight, the competition began five months and one day earlier. Seaham Red Star, Market Drayton Town, Dereham Town, St Neots Town, Stansted, Ascot United, Bishop’s Cleeve and Baffins Milton Rovers won their own Friday night curtain raisers in the Extra Preliminary Round.
In August 2008 I went to an Extra Preliminary Round tie for the first time. I was invited to watch Wembley against Royston Town by ITV, who at the time had the television rights for the competition. I met some people at that match who remain friends to this day, had my photo taken with Ol’ Big Ears, had a very pleasant pint with Brian Barwick, and generally had a bloody lovely time.
ITV had the night before begun what might be charitably described as a well intentioned but forlorn attempt to bring some exposure to the early rounds of the FA Cup. Some matches were streamed over “the internet” – can’t see that catching on – and others were made available via highlights, of which there were but two in the 1-1 draw I watched in the shadow of the arch.
The less said about The Gloryhunter the better.
Anyway, the point is that FA Cup Third Round day isn’t a beginning but a traditional staging post in the bleak midwinters of English football, the heritage centrepiece of our seasons.
As the Premier League and EFL Championship teams enter the competition this week, they’ll drag in with them a hundred articles about lost magic, television, greed and how sad it is that we somehow let the FA Cup get away from us, that we aren’t equipping it to be what it could and should be.
And it is sad. But it’s my duty as a non-league lover to point out at every opportunity that I wore shorts to, and got sunburned at, the only FA Cup match I went to this season. This season’s competition runs from August and into June, and in a perverse sort of way it’s a much more serious business early on than it is near the end.
Sure, once the big teams reach a quarter-final they start to take an interest. One or two might fancy a run at it from the turn of the year. But down at Step 5 of non-league the Extra Preliminary and Preliminary Rounds are no joke. This season their winners were awarded £1,125 and then £1,444. Teams who made it through the four qualifying rounds that followed would have pocketed another £20,625. Serious business.
The Cup’s value is in its depths, not its peaks. Their execution was off-kilter because of technology, timing and, well, being ITV, but ITV knew this in 2008. There are hundreds of matches played before January and most of them come with a story to tell.
Fifteen seasons on from my visit to the other Wembley it’s high time the FA, sponsors and broadcasters took another serious look at the preliminary and qualifying rounds of the FA Cup. It is, after all, where the magic actually happens*.
It goes without saying that technology has come a long way in that time. A lot of non-league clubs already produce their own highlights when they’re allowed to (right, National League?) and many of them do it to a professional standard. Some are even making documentaries.
Non-league football wasn’t equipped to show itself off in 2008. It didn’t have the access, or the gear, or even really YouTube. Now, it would be easier than ever for the FA and its partners to celebrate and enrich the FA Cup’s early rounds. Picking a few games for online coverage and punting out some goal retweets doesn’t really cut it.
Build a proper home for highlights again – a Road to Wembley hub where clubs can come together to share their experiences. And mean it this time. Incentivise their participation. Advertise the page. Get stuck in, be active, make it work. Clubs like mine will thank you for it.
But don’t stop there. Cut together a highlights package for each round and promote it properly through the hub, on YouTube and across yo’ socials. Make it an Emirates-sponsored property and it’s job done. It’s a tap-in.
And don’t stop there, either. Go out and tell the stories. How about an August to November documentary series every season? A round-by-round magazine show? Productions that were a big challenge fifteen years ago are now, frankly, an absolute piece of piss.
Are you going to spend a penny or what?
(* magic doesn’t actually happen)
“I know it’s tough, it’s not what we want. We want our members and fans in the stadium. But first and foremost we want everybody to feel safe about coming to football matches and we understand the sanctions are part of the healing process to get there.”
Melbourne Victory Managing Director Caroline Carnegie reflects on Football Australia sanctions in the aftermath of a violent pitch invasion by Victory fans in a recent derby against Melbourne City. By the time Victory played their next derby, a defeat to ten-man Western United, the attendance of their fans was extremely limited. Further punishment is expected.
HUNDRED 2023
The team at HUNDRED have unveiled our watchlist for next year.
In 2022 we reignited the project having been the editorial team at IBWM and responsible for IBWM 100. Picking up the baton from Don Balon more than a decade ago, we name the 100 most exciting male footballers aged 21 or under every December. Players from all over the world, playing in a wide range of leagues, from all walks of life.
Then we watch them relentlessly for the year. Then we report on them.
Here’s the HUNDRED for 2023.
Salty beef extracts
David Squires on … a salty end to Qatar’s World Cup (The Guardian)
Melbourne Victory face reckoning after years of hard work vanish with one throw of a bucket (The Guardian)
In fine Kompany: Burnley are way ahead of schedule in their great rebuild (Football365)
The 2022 Advent Calendar (Sound of Football)
Goal of the Week
That’s your lot. Thanks for reading. Please subscribe if you enjoyed it and haven’t done so yet.
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Have a week.
Good read Chris 👍