FA CUP CHANGES

From the Guardian.

The England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has won his battle to secure a four-
week break before the 2006 World Cup finals next summer with next year's FA Cup final being held on Saturday May 13 at the rebuilt Wembley Stadium.

The Football Association board had the option of staging the final on May 20 but has brought forward the date by a week. In return replays in the later rounds of the FA Cup for those clubs still involved in Europe have been scrapped, the ties to be settled by extra time and penalties where necessary.

As a knock-on effect the final fixtures of the Premiership season will also be
advanced by seven days.

Clubs in the Uefa Cup will not be required to play replays in the fifth round or
quarter- finals, and those in the Champions League will not have to contest
quarter-final replays.

Fifa had given the FA special dispensation to play next season's final, scheduled to be the first match at the new Wembley Stadium, on May 20, but Eriksson has been insistent that his England squad will need the full four weeks' preparation before the World Cup that most other countries will have.

The FA said in a statement yesterday that the new arrangement with the replays will only apply to next season. "This follows continued positive talks involving the FA, Premier League and Football League to find an appropriate solution to protecting the tradition and heritage of the FA Cup, while allowing for Fifa's four-week window between the end of all major domestic seasons and the start of the World Cup.

"The FA believes it is crucial to allow the national team to be given equal
preparation time to every other team competing in Germany next summer,
subject to qualification. To allow for a full four-week break, the domestic season has to conclude by May 13. This was deemed to be the only available solution to a very complex issue and will apply to the 2005-06 season only.

"It should be noted that in the past five seasons only three sixth-round ties have actually required a replay - Tranmere v Millwall (2004); Chelsea v Arsenal (2003) and Arsenal v Newcastle (2002), meaning only two out of 20 ties would have been affected under next season's rules."

There had been a suggestion that the FA Cup final would be played on a
Wednesday evening, but that was swiftly dropped. The FA is keen the final
should be the traditional climax to the domestic season - apart from the Football League's play-offs - and is played at 3pm on a Saturday.

The FA added it had done "all it can to protect the tradition of the Cup by
agreeing to schedule all replay dates as normal next season", apart from the
arrangement for teams still in Europe.