Official FA Cup Thread

[9 to 5]

2-0 Cardiff, bwahahaha!

[Sam]

Ha they're completely outplaying them as well! Just get another Cardiff!

[Scott McFly]

O' Neil is totally gonna get sent off at some point. But yeah, who would've thought Portsmouth would ever be favourites to win the FA Cup? But purely for their giant killing feats I'd like to see Barnsley win it.

[Hobo]

This has probably been the best FA Cup for a long time. Cardiff and Barnsley for the final

[Darloboy]

Ahh, nothing better than seeing Middlesbrough completely and utterly humiliated. Again.

[Dan]

Portsmouth the only premiership team left in the FA Cup.

Wow.

[britneyspearsisgod]

I was a little bored having to watch the Arsenal-Wigan game (my mum likes Arsenal), so I wondered how much teams get for winning rounds in the FA Cup. Then I got wondering. How much does the FA spend on the prize funds? Some little facts for you all...

- Winning games in the following rounds earn you this much for a prize in this year's competition (collective spend in parenthesis):

Extra Preliminary Round: £500 (£279,000)

Preliminary Round: £1,000 (£392,000)

First Round (Qualifying): £2,250 (£621,000)

Second Round (Qualifying): £3,750 (£735,000)

Third Round (Qualifying): £5,000 (£780,000)

Fourth Round (Qualifying): £10,000 (£1,240,000)

First Round: £16,000 (£1,344,000)

Second Round: £24,000 (£1,536,000)

Third Round: £40,000 (£1,280,000)

Fourth Round: £60,000 (£960,000)

Fifth Round: £120,000 (£960,000)

Quarter-Finals: £300,000 (£1,200,000)

Semi-Finals: £900,000 (£1,800,000)

Final: £1,000,000 (£1,000,00)

- The overall spend for the FA on prize money over the entire competition is £14,127,000.

- The highest-grossing round for prize funds collectively is the Second Round Proper, which garnered £1,536,000 for the 64 teams who managed to progress to the third round. Havant & Waterlooville are one of the many non-league teams who managed to pry £24,000 out of the FA for their progression.

- A Premiership or Championship club that goes all the way can expect to earn £2,420,000 in total prize winnings.

- In contrast, a League One/Two side has the potential to earn £2,460,000 from the fairytale of winning the Cup.

- In the rare, out-of-this-world cases, a non-league side who come from the VERY START of the competition could possibly earn a total of £2,482,500 for the unthinkable dream.

Just a fun little thing to think about.

Meanwhile, I am going to throw all my love to the beloved Gas

[alldaws1]

GOOOALLL BAGGIES! x2, great strike from Miller.

Man, WBA are getting away with some risky challenges in the penalty area.

Ah, bugger. 2-1.

Edited March 9, 2008 by alldawson

[Turbo Yannis]

I want Rover to win the cup now, purely because they're the first fans I've heard shout "You're shit ahh ahh!" in years.

[therockbox]

Offside for the third, surely? I know it came off a Bristol player but he was offside when the original ball was played.

[alldaws1]

Ah, it doesn't matter now. 4-1.

And now 5.

Edited March 9, 2008 by alldawson

[The Kraig]

This makes those bizarre cup occurrences in FM look awesomely well-simulated now.

West Brom 4-1 up. I hope it's Cardiff vs Barnsley, Portsmouth vs West Brom, with the final with Barnsley beating Portsmouth.

[Dan]

West Brom to win the cup.

[Summers]

Anyone but Pompy.

Anyone but Pompy.

and uhh anyone but Pompy.

[Farmer Reil]

Bah It was all looking so (relatively) good at half time, only being 2-1 down, having scored, having not been outplayed, and still being in the game.

Then Ishmael Miller happened.

[Pesci]

Ah, thank god for that. Got a bit worried with all the upsets that Rovers would actually pull the win off. But they didn't and now they can look forward to being shit again, two leagues below City next season.

West Brom have to win now, because Redknapp's a cunt, Barnsley knocked Liverpool out and I can't cheer for them because of it, and I hate the Welsh

[Hobo]

I don't care who wins anymore. I love all the teams left. I've loved Barnsley since they were in the Premiership (even though they knocked us out), I managed Cardiff on Championship Manager and that bonds a team to me (as with Watford, Millwall and a few others). I don't mind WBA (though I'd have rathered Bristol) or Pompey.

[IAceI]

Wait, are some analysts and people saying that this isn't good because none of the big 4 are in and the team's that are in aren't that great?

Because last time I checked Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea all seemed pretty incapable of putting on classic matches with each other. More likely just matches that see them cancel each other out and fizzle into 90 minutes (+ extra time and penalties possibly) of fuck all.

Edited March 9, 2008 by IAceI

[alldaws1]

Where'd you get that from? I've not seen or heard anyone say it's a bad thing none of the top four teams are in the semi-finals.

[IAceI]

Sure I read a post earlier about someone saying how poor all the teams were, or the Cup not being as important or whatever. I may have misread though but I did read something kinda like that I'm sure.

EDIT: Would appear the comment I read was more "shit cup teams are in the later rounds" kinda paraphrased from a liam quote on the last page. As opposed to Top 4 clubs not being there.

Still, the point stands a cup with the top 4 clubs would probably be pretty dull quality wise. ¬_¬

Edited March 10, 2008 by IAceI