{"id":8394,"date":"2026-02-20T01:50:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T20:20:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/02\/20\/womens-fa-cup-revamp-on-hold-after-ridiculous-idea-criticism\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T01:50:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T20:20:04","slug":"womens-fa-cup-revamp-on-hold-after-ridiculous-idea-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/02\/20\/womens-fa-cup-revamp-on-hold-after-ridiculous-idea-criticism\/","title":{"rendered":"Women&#8217;s FA Cup revamp on hold after &#8216;ridiculous idea&#8217; criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Published26 minutes ago<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#comments\">9 Comments<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Plans to change the format of the Women&#x27;s FA Cup, which would have seen four sides seeded and pathways to Wembley mapped out from the last 32 onwards, will not be introduced next season.<\/p>\n<p>The proposals, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/feb\/03\/womens-fa-cup-seeded-teams-no-draw-after-last-32-proposals\">first reported by the Guardian, <!-- -->external<\/a> this month, would prevent the top four sides from the previous season&#x27;s Women&#x27;s Super League (WSL) meeting until the semi-finals and end the use of draws from the fourth round onwards.<\/p>\n<p>The FA had claimed it would create &quot;high chances of consistent high-quality matches throughout the later rounds&quot; and &quot;strengthen commercial potential&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>But several official supporters&#x27; clubs warned the steps would ruin the &quot;magic&quot; of the competition and see the biggest clubs &quot;only get richer&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>The FA says it has listened to feedback and will hold off changing the cup&#x27;s structure while it gathers more views.<\/p>\n<p>An FA statement said: &quot;We understand how much the competition means to clubs, players and fans across the pyramid, and it is important that all parties have enough time to share their views.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;As a result, we will be extending the consultation phase to allow for further engagement informed by the questions and comments raised.&quot;<\/p>\n<h2>&#x27;All about the money&#x27;<\/h2>\n<p>SheGulls, representing fans of WSL club Brighton &amp; Hove Albion, had suggested seeding &quot;elite level teams&quot; would only widen the gulf in quality across the game.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;The sporting merit in our game is slowly being eroded in favour of &#x27;super matches&#x27; between elite level teams,&quot; the fan group wrote on X.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;The rich will only get richer and teams up and down the pyramid will fade into obscurity with the knowledge that without tens of millions of pounds, they won&#x27;t even sniff the big time.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Fulham Women Supporters&#x27; Club, whose side play in the fourth tier, labelled it a &quot;ridiculous idea&quot; and added: &quot;[It] goes against all the principles of the FA Cup. I&#x27;d like to see WSL teams actually come in a round early.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;And there goes the magic of the FA Cup! Subway Cup [League Cup] is a farce, now this?&quot; added Everton Women&#x27;s Official Supporters Club.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;All about the money. Didn&#x27;t take long to ruin the women&#x27;s game too did it\u2026&quot;<\/p>\n<p>The Women&#x27;s FA Cup currently follows the same format as the men&#x27;s competition, with a draw following each round.<\/p>\n<p>There is a preliminary round and three qualifying rounds featuring teams from tiers four to seven of the pyramid, with Women&#x27;s National League teams entering in the first-round proper, WSL2 teams in the third round and sides from the top division a round later.<\/p>\n<p>The proposals came to light less than a fortnight after a major revamp of the Women&#x27;s League Cup was announced, with the competition set to get a new name and follow the format of the Champions League from the group stage next season.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/articles\/cn82w5v529po\">\n<p>&#x27;Women&#x27;s FA Cup revamp would ruin the magic&#x27;<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published3 February<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/articles\/cd0ykm84l48o\">\n<p>Women&#x27;s League Cup to undergo name and format changes<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published22 January<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ben Haines, Ellen White and Jen Beattie are back for another season of the Women&#x27;s Football Weekly podcast. New episodes drop every Tuesday on BBC Sounds, plus find interviews and extra content from the Women&#x27;s Super League and beyond on the <a href=\"\/sounds\/brand\/p0bzmv49\">Women&#x27;s Football Weekly feed<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Related topics<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\">Football<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/womens\">Women&#x27;s Football<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>More on this story<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/womens-super-league\">\n<p>Get the latest WSL news on our dedicated page<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Women&#x27;s FA Cup revamp on hold after criticismImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Millie Bright captained Chelsea to victory in the competion last seasonPublished26 minutes ago9 CommentsPlans&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}