FA Cup Winners should go into Champions League

[Notters]

Is it held is disregard? The big teams have started taking it a bit more seriously now (when was the last time one of the 'big 4' wasn't in the final? Pompey v Cardiff?) Yes some teams make changes but the fact is that s lot of the secong string teams can still beat a lot of the others. If you really want to make the FA Cup worth winning to everyone then you need to make winning it worth while to the clubs, through prize money.

I dont think it's the really big teams that don't take it seriously so much as the other 14 teams in the prem who are scared of relegation.

 

[Luke93]

The current prize should be more than enough incentive to take this cup seriously... Surely the problem here is the clubs attitudes towards the financial awards in the league? Which I don't blame them for...

 

[gravnast]

The champions league became a mockery as soon as they started letting in teams who weren't champions of their respective leagues. So no cup winners should qualify or 2nd, 3rd or 4th placed finishers in the PL. But we know that will never happen again as too much money involved!

 

[Mellotron]

I agree with OP. Would make the FA Cup ten times more exciting.

You're MUCH more a "Champion" if you win the FA Cup than if you scrape 4th.

 

[withdeanwombat]

Makes a mockery of the CL by doing that. Champions league really should be the cream of the crop, not a Championship side scraping a lucky 1-0 in the final. Besides, if we did manage to win the FA cup and get into Europe (under your hypothetical suggestion) it would more than likely hinder a first season in the PL and our survival in that league.

The very title is a mockery. Last time I checked only ONE team could be Champion, so really it should be the "Champions and close also rans League", and therefore replacing one also ran with an actual winner of the main cup competition seems reasonable. That place, however, should NOT go to the losing finalist if the winner has already qualified by other means for the CACARL, but should return to the 3rd placed non champion in the league table, ie the team that finishes fourth.

 

[joeinbrighton]

I never used to think this was a good idea, simply because other countries simply have no interest in their domestic cups and treat them with more disdain than clubs in this country. But now I think perhaps it is the only way to get some clubs to engage properly with the competition. I think UEFA should give each country discretion to decide how it awards the Champions League places, so in England you could say if there's 4 CL places, the top 3 get a place but the FA Cup winner gets the 4th place if they didn't finish in the top 3 rather than the team that finishes 4th.

 

[joeinbrighton]

The champions league became a mockery as soon as they started letting in teams who weren't champions of their respective leagues. So no cup winners should qualify or 2nd, 3rd or 4th placed finishers in the PL. But we know that will never happen again as too much money involved!

Yeah, the competition has been really greatly diminished by not having the winners of the Icelandic League or the Slovakian League involved and instead having the teams that finished 2nd in Spain and Italy, hasn't it? The standard of the competition is much greater now, as proven by no-one retaining the trophy since the name was changed. The only thing that doesn't fit well is the name itself, which people seem to get fixated on in the same way as they do with the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Just call it the European Super League and be done with it.

 

[bn1&bn3 Albion]

That would change as if there was a CL spot available, clubs would not play weakened teams, meaning that the Wigan scenario would possibly/probably not happen

Good point.