Leave The FA Cup Alone!

And still it goes on. The desire to ruin the greatest club cup competition anywhere in football. Turn into something that does not really matter and has no kudos! All down to the Premier League small-minded, narrow-minded and introverted clubs.

There were nearly 750 football clubs that entered the FA Cup for this season. Of that number all but 20 were outside of the Premier League but it is the will of the 20 and not the approximately 730 that counts. Football really has gone to the dogs since the Premier League was formed. Why so many? Simply because of the magic of the FA Cup. The ability to take on the big boys. Attend the big grounds, earn some much needed revenue. The wonderful feeling of watching the third round draw and knowing that a minnow, the smallest and lowest placed team left in the competition could draw the biggest and best and compete with the on an even footing.

So what am I ranting about, getting me hair off about? The totally unnecessary reforms that are being suggested so that the poor old multi-millionaire footballers that play in the Premier League don't get too tired by having to play too many games. It is sickening! Do they not realise that the FA Cup has been in existence since 1871-72? That is 145 years. The Premier League since just 1992. Do they not realise they should be giving it the respect it deserves?

We have heard of proposals relating to the seeding of teams, making the competition a mid-week competition with no replays when a draw occurs. This along with other suggestions about lower league teams playing at home when drawn against higher league teams. Why? What is the point?

I will tell you what I believe the point to be. Simply because Premier League teams do not want to play two games a week. The poor over-paid "stars" get tired. If they have the honour, at least it used to be an honour, of being selected for the English national team, those few English players that actually play in the English Premier League, they may be too tired to play properly in the summertime international competitions because of the previous winter's exertions. Bless them! How do they cope? There is no other reason. Sadly, it would appear that the Football Association have now fallen for this nonsense and are willing to change the rules of their cup competition.

So what about the rag-bag 730 teams that do not compete in the Premier league? Well they really don't matter. The fact that a good cup run brings in hugely needed finance is irrelevant. The fact that for a lower league team to get a tie at a Premiership ground, either via the draw or by earning a replay, can have huge financial benefits along with exposure to the wider footballing audience doesn't matter. In essence, football outside of the Premier League no longer matters to either the Premier League itself or the Football Association.

The Premier League has done little or nothing for football in this country since it's inception and with these changes will help to force non-Premiership football into further decline. Decline you may say with some surprise? Absolutely, decline. It has been declining in importance since the day the Premier League was formed.

I fear for football in this country and the ordinary football supporter should too. Unless of course they feel that the heart of football is he Premier League!

Must Be A Woolyback Word - But No! Sick Innit?

Went to Birkenhead yesterday to watch the mighty Lincoln City Football Club against Tranmere Rovers. Excellent day out and not a bad result Nil - Nil against them in the FA Cup. Replay on Tuesday at Sincil Bank. However I digress.

Stuck on the wall of the stand was this sign:

Now that was a word I have never seen before. Vomitory. Thought it really had to be a Woolyback word. For the reader not acquainted with the term Woolyback (or Wools), it is a word used by Scousers, those born within Liverpool, for those that sound like Scousers and sometimes calling themselves Scousers who are actually from one of the towns surrounding Liverpool, such as Birkenhead. Still with me? Good oh.

So back to this word Vomitory. What does it actually mean? Is it to do with vomiting? Well yes and no from my investigations.

Apparently the term is derived from a Vomitoriom, which for some strange reason, is a Roman word for a passageway or alleyway which connects the outside to a row of seats. In the case of Tranmere Rovers, according to one of the stewards who should know, their vomitory or is that vomitori in the plural, are the stairwells leading down from the seating in the stands to the space underneath which houses the bar and the food outlets. Talkng of food and drinks, this leads me to another savoury tidbit, sorry about that, from my investigations. Apparently the vomitorium became a place where the ancient Romans went to vomit up the food they had already eaten to make way for some more. Delightful no? Does that mean they were all bulimic?

In the vernacular Sick innit mate?

Life, as they say, is a classroom every day.

I hope all of that was as educational for you as it was for me.

Valeat quantum valere potest.