FA Cup Final

samivel

Anyone going and are you City or Stoke?

HamishD

Sadly no. Newcastle at home on Sunday instead.

Shall be cheering on Stoke though for Bobby Huth's sake.

asprilla

I think it's a disgrace they hare having the final the same weekend as EPL games. The cup final should be the season closer.

TheStone

Asprilla wrote:

I think it's a disgrace they hare having the final the same weekend as EPL games. The cup final should be the season closer.

I was surprised by that. Is this the first year?

Should be a great cup final. Stoke on fire at the moment and could cause an upset.
Difficult to like Man City at the moment.

CyclingBantam

Asprilla wrote:

I think it's a disgrace they hare having the final the same weekend as EPL games. The cup final should be the season closer.

+1 but you can always rely on a governing body to do something mind numbingly stupid for their own benefit can't you.

tobermory

Its because of the CL final at Wembley uefa says that the pitch cannot be played on for two weeksbefore the final.

Tonymufc

samivel wrote:

Anyone going and are you City or Stoke?

Well certainly not S****y.

lostboysaint

Am going, supporting neither, could certainly not support a Pulis team (HOOOOOF) and have no desire to support the latest fat-wallet brigade.

Prawn sandwich me up.

Aguila

Tonymufc wrote:

samivel wrote:

Anyone going and are you City or Stoke?

Well certainly not S****y.

Upset about having to take your banner down at the swamp?

CyclingBantam

tobermory wrote:

Its because of the CL final at Wembley uefa says that the pitch cannot be played on for two weeksbefore the final.

And the frightening thing is that came as a surprise to the FA. You see how the rest of the end of season has to get messed up as they chace the money.

Still, they are there to look out for the best interests of the sport aren't they... oh, wait.

samivel

lostboysaint wrote:

Am going, supporting neither, could certainly not support a Pulis team (HOOOOOF) and have no desire to support the latest fat-wallet brigade.

Prawn sandwich me up.

I'm gutted, my brother and I are fighting over 1 ticket, your going and supporting neither!!

dhope

CyclingBantam wrote:

tobermory wrote:

Its because of the CL final at Wembley uefa says that the pitch cannot be played on for two weeksbefore the final.

And the frightening thing is that came as a surprise to the FA. You see how the rest of the end of season has to get messed up as they chace the money.

Still, they are there to look out for the best interests of the sport aren't they... oh, wait.

Not like it'll happen often. CL final wouldn't be back at Wembley for 20 years or so and, at the risk of upsetting the purists, is a far bigger game than the FA Cup final these days.

Tonymufc

Aguila wrote:

Tonymufc wrote:

samivel wrote:

Anyone going and are you City or Stoke?

Well certainly not S****y.

Upset about having to take your banner down at the swamp?

Yeah, but I'll be putting it back up come the 28th.

CyclingBantam

My point is, surely you think about how the season is set out (i.e. pull it forward by a week instead of being taken by surprise and having to cram it in at the same time as league games.

My annoyance with the FA isn't really this it is the overall amateur nature they go about running the sport.

tobermory

That's the problem with the FA it is still run as if it's 1872 and not 2011,how daft is this the conference play off is AFC Wimbledon and Luton yet they have to travel to Eastlands for the final surely the Emirates would have been better for both sides football fans are the least considered sadly.

CiB

CyclingBantam wrote:

My point is, surely you think about how the season is set out (i.e. pull it forward by a week instead of being taken by surprise and having to cram it in at the same time as league games.

My annoyance with the FA isn't really this it is the overall amateur nature they go about running the sport.

It's not a problem having to bring it forward a couple of weeks, bu it would have been more dignified and respectful of the competition to have held it on a day when no other PL games were being played. That said, I'm pretty sure that there have been FA Cup Finals played on days when other top level football has been going on, based mainly on vague memories of seeing framed copies of the Leicester Mercury hanging up in The Queen's Head - a popular hostelry in Hinckley, just down the road from the cinema & the police station & magistrates court. I'm quite sure that the front page of at least one of those Merc's carries a match report and a wrap-up of the other results that day.

Anyhoo - I'll be supporting Man Citeh. I've always liked em a bit, going way back when to the days of Tony Book, Colin Bell, Fran Lee, Peter Barnes [genius], and one of the most decent men ever to grace the football profession, Joe Mercer. They did beat the mighty Leicester back in the 1969 final though, which takes the edge of it a bit.

lostboysaint

samivel wrote:

lostboysaint wrote:

Am going, supporting neither, could certainly not support a Pulis team (HOOOOOF) and have no desire to support the latest fat-wallet brigade.

Prawn sandwich me up.

I'm gutted, my brother and I are fighting over 1 ticket, your going and supporting neither!!

Welcome to the harsh world of modern football. And the FA (who are as shit as everyone says and there isn't bandwidth to go into why) gave me my ticket

tobermory

CyclingBantam wrote:

My point is, surely you think about how the season is set out (i.e. pull it forward by a week instead of being taken by surprise and having to cram it in at the same time as league games.

My annoyance with the FA isn't really this it is the overall amateur nature they go about running the sport.

The logic is spot on but the big teams are still away on oversea's jaunts raking in money for their clubs on pointless friendlies.
The FA do not run the game, the Premier League and the big clubs who have most say.
Its the same with this fair play,whereby clubs can only spend what they bring in,it will be difficult to do.
Because there is nothing to stop a rich owner giving the club he owns a gift of say £50,000,000,and because it was the clubs who forced the hand of UEFA to extend the CL ,they threatened to pick their ball up and go and form a euro super league.
It would make sense to have proper fiscal controls in football the hard thing is getting clubs to agree,bit like turkey's voting for xmas.

Blandiblub

Dislike the fact that there's Prem games on the same day but dislike more the fact that they use Wembley for the semis as well as the final. Make Wembley special by 'rewarding' the finalists with the day out at Wembley.

I know it's to help pay back the cost of building the darn thing but do miss those semis at the likes of Villa Park, Old Trafford, etc.

Am neutral officially but will be cheering on Stoke all the way.

dhope

tobermory wrote:

Because there is nothing to stop a rich owner giving the club he owns a gift of say £50,000,000

There is, money for nothing would appear on the books and would fall foul of the fair play rules.

tobermory

Well it's not me saying it.
Sports lawyers were saying there are ways around it in a convoluted it adds up to being a gift.

tobermory

Well it's not me saying it.
Sports lawyers were saying there are ways around it in a convoluted way it adds up to being a gift.

dhope

tobermory wrote:

Well it's not me saying it.
Sports lawyers were saying there are ways around it in a convoluted way it adds up to being a gift.

I'm certain there'll be ways to massage the accounts, but you'll not have oil tycoons spending £400m over 2 seasons on players because no amount of fiddling books could persuade any right thinking person that Man City could balance that sort of outlay.

tobermory

I hope that these rules come in and stick as i do not want to see the crazy money spent,i would rather see the game played on an even playing field.
The problem will be making the rules watertight to try and stop owners pumping in money.
It's amazing the league with the greatest turnover has more clubs in debt then anywhere else

samivel

24 hours to go!!!

There was a point when City didn't have this money to spend and I would have agreed with your comments.

They are simply jealousy. Every club would love the money. Others have been doing it before us.

Gussio

I will be there, supporting Stoke with my father (traveling from Stoke) and my brother (on a plane from France as I type). Hugely looking forward to it. The semi final was incredible.

We'll play how we want.
We'll play how we want.
We're Stoke City.
We'll play how we want.

8)

lostboysaint

samivel wrote:

24 hours to go!!!

There was a point when City didn't have this money to spend and I would have agreed with your comments.

They are simply jealousy. Every club would love the money. Others have been doing it before us.

Is now a good time to tell you that my tickets are in that end of the ground?

shouldbeinbed

Working overlooking eastlands and not a scrap of interest who wins. Agree about devaluing it by having it in the season, why not give it back to the Millennium Stadium

stephenite

lostboysaint wrote:

samivel wrote:

24 hours to go!!!

There was a point when City didn't have this money to spend and I would have agreed with your comments.

They are simply jealousy. Every club would love the money. Others have been doing it before us.

Is now a good time to tell you that my tickets are in that end of the ground?

Don't be a tight wad and give him your ticket!

And this from a United fan!

BelgianBeerGeek

I'm a Staffordshire lad so Stoke of course. People are making this out to be some kind of "David and Goliath" contest. They do play in the same league don't they? That said it would be helpful if City are complacent.

tobermory

Stoke have a good chance anything can happen in a one off game.