Friday Freebie: The FA Cup changes hands again but you can't see it all for free
New TV deal leaves more questions than answers in it's wake
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There is so much content at the moment to cover that I could easily write something up every single day but time doesn’t allow for that with a full time job alongside the blogging.
Each idea I’ve had in the past seven days has superseded itself although there are a few than can be put on the backburner and used at a later date with it not being time sensitive material.
So tonight we’re going with the news the FA Cup is moving away from terrestrial TV and a new deal with TNT Sports announced this week. Not surprisingly it’s drawn it’s fair share of criticism across social media due to both the statement and the lack of clarity it’s given football.
Of course Sky Sports have had the rights before and TNT in it’s BT Sport guise shared with either BBC or ITV in the past and while there will be a free-to-air partner you can’t help thinking the FA have shot themselves in the foot once more.
The competition has yet to finish this year but we’ve seen some outstanding stuff from the non-league sides. Maidstone Utd will rightly get a ton of plaudits  but digging back a few rounds the likes of Cray Valley PM, Sheppey and Ramsgate from Step 4 all reaching the First Round Proper and the latter the Second Round, all featuring on BBC or ITV where the world and his wife could watch if they wanted to.
Fast forward to the same clubs doing likewise next season and the audience becomes less thanks to subscription sport TV. The names of those clubs above were pretty much unheard of beyond the middle to lower levels of our game, the TV exposure has no doubt helped them all and no doubt one or two are being kept a close eye on from elsewhere inside the game.
There is also no mention of the six rounds before the competition proper rounds, coverage given to clubs way, way down the pyramid via the BBC iPlayer platform with one game per round, why not wait until the full deal has been put together and announce it rather than getting people’s backs up because they care more about the FA Cup than most Premier League sides have done for years.
It comes across so badly, not uncommon when dealing with the FA and a lack of clarity or leadership. You could say they’ve not read the room at all and like the PL they’ve followed the gravy train, only to end up with egg on their face instead.
The FA Cup goes deeper than just where it’s placed on TV screens, I’ve long been saying what needs to happen to make the competition be reignited in this very column, however that needs to fixed by the cup owners themselves and all the while they pander to the PL then change is highly unlikely to come.
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Are we all jumping the gun a little or are we correct in displaying our displeasure in moving some of the TV games away from free-to-air channels? Let me know in the comments below.