The Emirates FA Cup might not mean much to football played above Championship level but for the rest of us the sparkle still remains when non-league clubs are involved and it’s still vital to those lower Football League clubs.
Should it really be a surprise to us though that the FA themselves deem the draw for qualifying rounds is to shroud themselves in mystery and when they try and give it a bit of glamour by showcasing it live, you never see a positive comment.
Are we as non-league fans considered second rate supporters or we just asking for something that shouldn’t be too much effort to put in from our so-called governing body?
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The FA for me underestimate the level of growth non-league football has undertaken in the last ten years at least. Without checking any figures and I’m not sure how you can show it exactly, it’s clear more and more people are dropping in to watch their local team for a variety of reasons turning them away from Premier League football, just speak to people when you go to a game.
More eyes are on it; more interaction comes from social media and the clubs themselves are extending as much as they can to push themselves into the spotlight.
The FA Cup is one of those competitions and occasions where they get the chance to make the nation sit up and take notice of who they are. The first five rounds from the Extra Preliminary to the Third Qualifying Round are all drawn in what seems in secret and then published on a Monday lunchtime.
We’re in a very much digital and technological age, where information is easily shared and people want to see as much as they can for themselves, so why aren’t the FA conducting these draws live?
County FA’s can manage to produce a county cup draw live on local BBC radio, the nation or relevant county can at least listen in, the FA still all cloak and dagger shrouded in mystery until the 1PM announcement.
It’s not just the FA Cup, it’s the Trophy and the Vase as well, do they really not realise the interest? Are they really so wrapped up in FA towers that they don’t understand we’re in 2025 now and things can and should be done so much differently. There’s a point to this in part coming very shortly in the next few paragraphs to explain something a little more.
And so to the Fourth Qualifying Round and subsequently the latter rounds of the Trophy and Vase.
The FA for all their wisdom use talkSPORT to conduct the draw live on a Monday afternoon. Now I get that it’s a particular radio station that has a draw on listeners, not my cup of tea because I don’t think it’s opinion, it’s clickbait which I can’t stand.
But what they seem clueless about at the FA, and that extends to the radio station, is that a majority of their every day listener is not tuning in for this particular section and if it’s part of a show being broadcast they’re probably not paying attention.
The people that are however are resigned to the fact we’re really listening to amateur hour. These presenters have no clue or extremely little at best about non-league football; they’re aiming at the Premier League and at worst the Championship with a tiny sprinkling of the lower Football League.
It borders on farcical every time they conduct a draw, it’s not even been held with the FA in attendance to draw the balls out of the bag. Yesterday afternoon was a prime example of the ineptitude displayed.
The draw numbers are released in the morning and common knowledge across social media. The presenters couldn’t be bothered to give out the info that some ball numbers had changed since the morning release.
Fans were there listening, the ball number comes out, a different side announced and within 30 seconds it’s on social media with questions asking what’s going on.
Further to that, they failed to actually explain there were more ties in the Southern section than the Northern section. Not such a big deal it might seem, but it is to football fans who care and are bothered.
Mostly you will find when you tune in at say 3pm as advertised, they’re still waffling on about the weekend in the Premier League and it almost seems like an inconvenience to have the draws taking place.
It’s time now to get the draws away from a platform that doesn’t care and get it over to the Non League Paper. A media outlet that does non-league and cares, their recently introduced YouTube channel would be perfect for conducting these draws until the Football League enter in round one, after all it’s non-league’s cup until then.
The Trophy and the Vase should be here as well, imagine those days in July when the early rounds of all the competitions are released, imagine having true non-league legends and well known names in front of a camera, it would only grow the game even more and save the rest of us from drivel we have to put up from clueless presenters only there for clicks and likes, our level of the games deserves more, don’t you agree?
