The FA Cup's future will be 'forever diminished' if the Football Association strike a long-term arrangement with the Premier League to sell the international rights to the historic competition bundled alongside its own TV package.
Labour MP Clive Efford, a member of the Culture, Media and Sport parliamentary committee which took evidence from the FA and the Premier League on football regulation in March, believes such a deal would place undue control over the FA Cup in the Premier League's hands.
“The Premier League has shown its contempt for the FA Cup in the past,” Efford told the PA news agency. “Why would anyone who has any concern about the future of the FA Cup put the Premier League in charge of it?
“(The FA Cup) is not a competition that (Premier League clubs) value. They prefer the Premier League, the Champions League, that’s what it boils down to. The FA Cup will be forever diminished. I think this is a big issue – it’s the death knell of the FA Cup and the status of the FA Cup.”
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The Premier League, FA and EFL have been in separate talks over a ‘New Deal For Football’ over the last 18 months which has included discussions on what the domestic football calendar looks like. The possibility of scrapping FA Cup replays amid the expansion of UEFA competitions from 2024 is under discussion.
An agency called Infront Sports and Media said in a statement issued this week it had been chosen as the preferred bidder for a portion of the overseas FA Cup rights, but was then told by the FA negotiations were being paused because of a third-party offer it had to assess.
Efford added: “The FA has to act in the interests of the wider football pyramid and whatever it thinks it might get in the short term in terms of a contract for the coverage of the FA Cup, we’re putting the future status of the competition in the hands of people who’ve shown in the past that they find it a burden on their time.
“(The FA) are just completely in the thrall of the Premier League and I don’t think that’s good for the long-term future of the game.”
PA reports the FA is still considering the third-party offer and the process will run until July 17, leaving the future of the FA Cup in doubt and its potential impact on clubs such as Manchester City and Manchester United uncertain.
It was claimed by the Daily Mail that the showpiece FA Cup final weekend is also set to be scrapped.
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