Football Daily | Is a Swiss-style end for FA Cup replays worth trading the family silver for?

Football Daily | Is a Swiss-style end for FA Cup replays worth trading the family silver for?

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You’ve probably heard of the Swiss system. Come on, you know: “The Swiss system is used for competitions in which there are too many entrants for a full round-robin (all-play-all) to be feasible, and eliminating any competitors before the end of the tournament is undesirable. [1].” That’s the format next season’s Big Cup group stage will be played within. And thereafter, until a Uefa suit eventually clocks that 36 teams playing each other on a rota devised by a supercomputer until late January to cut down to the same 16 that usually fill the knockouts is few people’s idea of appointment viewing in an age of TV on demand and YouTube sensations.

Re: yesterday’s Football Daily letters. Oh the decline! Alex Jackson’s packed pub with seven (seven!) hand pumps on show versus Olivier Bernard’s empty pub with only two hand pumps and lots of fizzy cr@p like C@rling! How we mourn the good old days” – Rob Worsfold (and no other possible members of Camra).

Nice to see Carlo Ancelotti taking to bed with Tin in yesterday’s missive. Weird Uncle Carlo, anybody?” – Gerry Rickard.

I cannot help but notice that one sure-fire way to get one’s letter published appears to be to include a link to a (somewhat) spectacular/hilarious/lesser-known clip on YouTube. Since, as a Gooner, I have nothing particularly funny to say, and since my country of adoption has the preposterously named Canadian Premier League (which is definitely not a step-up from MLS), I thought I would give it a try by linking to this spectacularly misguided goalline clearance from a couple of years ago involving my ‘home’ team, the Halifax Wanderers. (The visiting team, humbly named ‘Valour FC’, did actually score and won the game once they subbed the wandering player off)” – Pierre Igot.

Re: Football Daily Pro Evo names (letters passim). Surely Barry would be Gary Blendenning ” – Tim Jones.

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