After Paul Lambert's comments Aston Villa could do without the cup "if they were being honest" last weekend. This got us thinking is it better to go for tradition and try and go all the way in the FA Cup or focus on the big money and transfers in the Premier League.
In terms of money the simple answer is try and reach the Premier League. As even in the case of QPR who finished bottom of the Premier League, they received 0.8m and 5.8m from TV revenue with this figure expected to be higher for teams in the current 2013/14 season. Whereas if QPR had won the FA Cup they would have received £3,462,500 which results in a difference of around £3m. So does this mean that you're rewarded for doing less work? For sure hovering over 17th position in Premier League should definitely mean less than wining the biggest national tournament after all this is where football talent and the beautiful game can be both easily promoted and well rewarded! If financing is a problem possibly FA should try to get more media coverage and create more TV revenue from FA Cup especially when broadcasters are fighting more vigorously than ever before for new audience. Although FA has no direct impact on Premier League business affairs it remains an important special shareholder of the Premier League and it could use their position to rise profile of FA Cup in media using media relationship with Premier League to make this table a bit more attractive to everyone and give rewards to these teams who work hard and put up great show especially if they are low ranked teams in league hierarchy.
On the other hand, in terms of tradition the FA Cup outranks the Premier League. One of the most memorable teams who gained the label of giant killer, were hardworking non-league Luton Town whose 1-0 victory over Norwich last season caused a huge upset, but will be remembered by their fans for years to come.
What do you think, should hard work pay off with the FA awarding more prize money for the FA Cup or should the FA cup be completely removed from football since clearly it doesn't pay?
Vote on on Twitter Now!
#FAreward for more prize money in the FA Cup
or
#FAscraped if you think the FA Cup should be scraped altogether like Paul Lambert suggests.
