Football
PA Sport 8y

FA Cup quarterfinal replays to be scrapped for next season

The Football Association has announced FA Cup quarterfinal replays will be scrapped from next season.

In a move approved by the FA board on Thursday, the last-eight stage of the cup competition will revert to a sudden-death format over one weekend in a bid to ease English football's congested fixture list.

FA chief executive Martin Glenn said: "The Emirates FA Cup remains at the heart of English football and this change adds to the excitement of the competition and will benefit the wider game in general.

"With great attendances and TV figures across the BBC and BT Sport, this season has confirmed the cup's special status - underlined by great stories culminating in Manchester United's triumph at Wembley last Saturday.

"In a demanding calendar and with increased pressures on fans, it is important we move with the times and consider new innovations such as last week's successful non-league finals day which saw 50,000 fans at Wembley for the Vase and Trophy.''

Glenn added on the FA website: "While fully respecting tradition and history, this new development will help the cup retain its status as a much-loved and world-renowned competition.''

The decision means the last FA Cup quarterfinal replay will be West Ham's Upton Park clash with Manchester United, which took place on Wednesday, April 13, in an unusual 7 p.m. slot.

It was the most logical available date for the match, albeit a month on from the original match between the teams.

But it also clashed with two Champions League quarterfinals, and UEFA is averse to live domestic matches clashing with its highest-profile club competition, meaning that for BBC coverage to go ahead it had to start earlier than usual.

United won that match 2-1, with Marouane Fellaini scoring the clinching second goal as Louis van Gaal's side cleared a key hurdle on their way to lifting the trophy at Wembley. West Ham's James Tomkins scored the final goal of the match.

Concerns over fixture congestion in the English game were raised in a Football League blueprint published last week, with proposals to do away with FA Cup replays altogether, and to play entire rounds of the cup in midweek.

As it stands, replays will continue to take place in the earlier rounds of the competition.

In 1991, the FA abolished its system that allowed multiple replays in FA Cup ties, with the limit being changed to one replay, followed by a penalty shoot-out if the teams remained tied.

FA Cup semi-final replays were phased out after 1999. Ryan Giggs settled the last semi-final replay with his famous solo goal for Manchester United against Arsenal at Villa Park.

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