Jump to content

2020/2021 Scottish Cup


Burnie_man

Recommended Posts



Previous press reports suggested that the SFA would have liked to finish the 2019/20 cup earlier but couldn’t because of uncertainty over when Hearts would start their season.

You keep making up fictitious "press reports" without providing a single link. The SFA have been on the record several times as saying that they want the tournament to be completed with fans in attendance, something which is unlikely before October at the very earliest. All four semi-finalists will have started their season by that point.

The income from these games is literally the only reason they're still playing them, so I find it unlikely that they had given even the slightest consideration to playing them any earlier. I actually thought they might have ended up playing them in 2021 just to be safe.


https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2020/06/scottish-cup-semi-finals-could-be-played-this-year/

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/ian-maxwell-reveals-6m-crowds-22392989

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/scottish-cup-semi-finals-could-22066598

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyway, if there is some sponsorship reason why it can't start before last season's final, the obvious solution is to create a one-off "qualifying tournament" which has more or less the same structure as the early rounds normally do, and then rename Round 3 (or Round 4) as Round 1.

Since that wouldn't be the Scottish Cup they could then surely play it from October onwards with no issues. If clubs aren't ready to compete then they can sit it out.

 

 

Edited by craigkillie
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think that the still to be completed 19/20 Scottish Cup is the last one in the sponsorship deal with William Hill. William Hill would not allow early games in the 20/21 season as two different Scottish Cups getting reported in the media. i.e.The William Hill Scottish Cup and ( made up example of a company with piles of money) The Preparation H Scottish Cup.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

57 minutes ago, EdinburghBlue said:

They should have abandoned the competition when they knew it couldn’t be completed by the end of the season.

Then looked under the sofa cushions to cover the financial cost of the brokent TV and sponsorship deals. While possibly having to deal with the same repercussions in 2020-21 due to the amended tournament.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, FairWeatherFan said:

Then looked under the sofa cushions to cover the financial cost of the brokent TV and sponsorship deals. While possibly having to deal with the same repercussions in 2020-21 due to the amended tournament.

Was their no broken TV and sponsorship deal with the League?

Why has every other country either finished their national cup or are playing it before next season starts but the Scottish cup is the exception to this? I don't believe the sponsorship of the Scottish cup is more lucrative or important than the French cup for example who are concluding their cups this week before the start of next season.

I am not understanding that the Scottish cup above all other massive sporting events around the world has to have supporters back in before it can be completed????

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Was their no broken TV and sponsorship deal with the League?
Why has every other country either finished their national cup or are playing it before next season starts but the Scottish cup is the exception to this? I don't believe the sponsorship of the Scottish cup is more lucrative or important than the French cup for example who are concluding their cups this week before the start of next season.
I am not understanding that the Scottish cup above all other massive sporting events around the world has to have supporters back in before it can be completed????

Yes, there was a broken TV and sponsorship deal for the SPFL. They were able to negotiate it down with Sky and will pay it over the next 5 years of the deal, but they had to compensate BT Sport.

Most other countries in Europe were able to finish their season, we were one of a few who were not. Obviously most of those who played out their season also played out their cup. Of those who didn't, the cups generally don't have the same prestige as the Scottish Cup, so nobody really cared.

The Scottish Cup semis and final are probably worth about £5m from ticket sales alone in normal circumstances, which is much needed income for the SFA and the clubs involved, therefore there is an obvious benefit to going ahead and playing them rather than cancelling them and actually having to pay out money.

We're not the only country who are planning to play it at a later date either. The Spanish Cup final between Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad is also being held back in the hope of getting supporters to attend.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, craigkillie said:


Most other countries in Europe were able to finish their season, we were one of a few who were not. Obviously most of those who played out their season also played out their cup. Of those who didn't, the cups generally don't have the same prestige as the Scottish Cup, so nobody really cared.

The Scottish cup is more prestigious than other European domestic trophies and other countries don't really care? That is quite a statement. Whether it is true or not there are over 50 spots in the Europa league for domestic cup winners so even if it is a 2nd thought to most clubs it is still a valuable prize.

1 hour ago, craigkillie said:

We're not the only country who are planning to play it at a later date either. The Spanish Cup final between Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad is also being held back in the hope of getting supporters to attend.

I didn't know that, thanks for info.

1 hour ago, FairWeatherFan said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53077082

As for why the Scottish Cup is so important. Here's the pie chart of the SFA's turnover from the 2019 annual review.

image.png.39e53fb8042cd3a3a62a0cddb5f604ab.png

I don't underestimate the finances of this, how much of the 22% comes from the semi and final though? Surely the SFA will already have some of this money.

I just believe if there is a way to make a mess of things the SFA and SPFL will do it. Nobody even knows when fans will be allowed in so delaying it is a gamble. Their is a good chance of fixture congestion coming ahead especially for Celtic (who I have no sympathy for but will scream conspiracy and unfairness) so any possibility this gets put back again or ends up behind closed doors anyway defeats the whole point of delaying it.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

30 minutes ago, ahemps said:

The Scottish cup is more prestigious than other European domestic trophies and other countries don't really care? That is quite a statement. Whether it is true or not there are over 50 spots in the Europa league for domestic cup winners so even if it is a 2nd thought to most clubs it is still a valuable prize.

The countries who have chosen not to complete their domestic cup competitions for 2019/20 are Azerbaijan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia and San Marino.

I didn't think was much of a push to suggest that the Scottish Cup was more prestigious than the bulk of those. I had forgotten about the Dutch one, theirs is the only one which could remotely be considered on a par with the Scottish Cup in terms of prestige and/or importance within the country.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really don't think the Dutch Cup is on the same level: most of its rounds are punted to midweek and the bigger teams play a stack of fringe players. The Scottish Cup should be played to a conclusion but holding off until fucking Christmas in a quite possibly doomed attempt to 'get the fans in' is an entirely separate stack of nonsense. When you are proposing to trash next season's perfectly viable competition for the sake of a dung final four this time round then you have got your priorities all wrong. 

Wrapping it up under closed doors at the end of next month would have been the best solution. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, virginton said:

I really don't think the Dutch Cup is on the same level: most of its rounds are punted to midweek and the bigger teams play a stack of fringe players. The Scottish Cup should be played to a conclusion but holding off until fucking Christmas in a quite possibly doomed attempt to 'get the fans in' is an entirely separate stack of nonsense. When you are proposing to trash next season's perfectly viable competition for the sake of a dung final four this time round then you have got your priorities all wrong. 

Wrapping it up under closed doors at the end of next month would have been the best solution. 

I just don't see why the two things have to be related in any way, and why you couldn't just start next season's competition as normal even if last season's hasn't been completed yet. I doubt anyone is going to be genuinely troubled the fact that Linlithgow Rose v Banks O'Dee is taking place on the same weekend as the semi-finals or whatever - any "confusion" around it would be demonstrative mewling from fans of Rangers, Hearts, Thistle and Stranraer plus the usual "Scottish football is a laughing stock" mob who would be doing the same literally no matter what happened.

If we were in the semis I'd definitely want to go and wouldn't mind waiting a bit for the privilege.

Edited by craigkillie
Link to comment
Share on other sites

They clearly are related enough in the minds of the sponsors and/or the SFA to make this a non-starter. As for attending the matches: I'm afraid that's just tough. I want to attend every one of Morton's 27 league games next season but the way things are being set up I might not get to see even one-third of them in person. There was a global pandemic, you wrap up what's left of the 19/20 season that you can and just move on. It's not as if this is a once in a lifetime experience for the fans of the four clubs in question either. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking at spfl fixtures I think these would be the provisional dates

Boxing day, league 2 sides enter

9th January League 1 sides enter.

30th January championship and premiership enter.

march 13th last 16/quarter finals.   Going by how the fixtures usually are worked only the premiership has given it as a free weekend so probably quarter finals.  Means the last 16 probably played midweek in February.

semi-finals normal weekend after premiership MD33 So that would be 10th April.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, parsforlife said:

Looking at spfl fixtures I think these would be the provisional dates

Boxing day, league 2 sides enter

9th January League 1 sides enter.

30th January championship and premiership enter.

Shocker if Scottish F.a. wants lotto for ten Pyramid teams to get in to there own cup but S.p.f.l. Championship teams skip one more round than before.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, Dennis Smith said:

Shocker if Scottish F.a. wants lotto for ten Pyramid teams to get in to there own cup but S.p.f.l. Championship teams skip one more round than before.

I don't agree with this proposal at all, but bear in mind that 4 Champ teams already enter the same round as Premiership sides.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...