When the full-time whistle blew at Wembley on Sunday afternoon and Cardiff City booked their place in an FA Cup final for the first time in 81 years there was a ray of sunshine over South Wales, but a black cloud hanging over Soho Square.
The prospect of Dave Jones’ mid-table Championship side winning the greatest cup competition in the world on May 17 has thrown up a major quandary for the powers that be on both sides of the border. The English FA Cup winners are guaranteed a place in the following season’s UEFA Cup and that is where the crux of the problem lies. Cardiff are Welsh!
With Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool dominating the competition year in — year out for the past decade or so this has never really become an issue until now. The English FA have already stated they will not hand over a UEFA Cup place to the Bluebirds as their ‘guest’ side for next season, while UEFA have moved to pacify the matter by saying they will be hand the club wildcard entry into European football.
This move has upset the Welsh FA whose secretary Alun Evans says will achieve ‘a short-term gain for a long-term loss’. Evans wants Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham to start fielding second-string teams in the Welsh Premier League to try and qualify for Europe in that way instead of using an English route which he feels will damage their efforts to help Welsh clubs qualify through Welsh leagues and competitions.
This seems the most viable option, but you could argue that would be disrespectful to the remaining clubs in the Welsh Premier League if Cardiff and Swansea are using it to give their reserves a run out every week?
However the onus surely must lie with the English FA to sort out this minefield? They have been happy for Cardiff to ply their trade in the Football League and compete for English silverware for most of the club’s existence — waiving their right to qualify for Europe through their own country’s competitions as a result. Therefore if they have the gall to win one of these competitions then surely they deserve the right to reap the rewards?
True Cardiff have the small matter of Portsmouth to see off first, but if they do then a place in the UEFA Cup is fully deserved.
What do you think – should the English FA give Cardiff a Uefa Cup place if the win at Wembley?
A similar situation has recently cropped up in New Zealand.
Wellington Phoenix are a New Zealand club that play in the Australian A-League.
In the last week there was talk about Wellington wanting to qualify for the Club World Championships (CWC) via the Oceania qualifying tournament against other teams from New Zealand and the pacific island nations.
They were told no by FIFA because they were considered part of the Asian Confederation as they ply their trade in Australia and thus would have to qualify for the Asian Champions League and win that to qualify for the CWC.
Surely then it makes sense that a team considered to play their trade in an English league should qualify as part of Englands allocation european spots.
Cardiff should get the guaranteed spot from the English FA.
Cardiff should definitely take their place in the UEFA Cup by the FA. If they do win it, it’ll be interesting to see how far they get.
I do agree that Cardiff should be given a place if they win but there is defitely an argument against.
Cardiff and their fans have been very anti-English. When the finals were all held in Cardiff they couldn’t play the National Anthem because the Welsh would boo and jeer it.
Now that it suits, I suppose it would be OK to the Cardiff fans to represent the English FA.
Just playing Devil’s advocate.
Arrr, this is a difficult one. Nobody would dispute the League of Wales plays to a standard that’s probably about Ryman Premier level most weeks, so for established teams like Cardiff and Swansea it’s a no brainer to play in England. And then there’s Wales strictly being a principality, albeit one with a very strong identity. If the footballing support throughout Wales was as strong as the rugby support, then it’d make more sense for Cardiff et al to play in the LoW.
The anti-English has always been there as a bit of banter, but it’s only really since Sam Hammam started whipping up the anti-English rhetoric that this has become more of an issue. Not that some of Cardiff’s more extreme elements need an excuse to get nasty (and it’s more the mindless idiots who boo the National anthem, just as you get a few mindless English supporters who do the same).
The idea of Cardiff and Swansea playing their second string in the LoW is an interesting one. On one hand, my gut feeling is it probably isn’t right and makes even more of a mockery of LoW than it already is. On the other hand, it could strengthen the league and may encourage more Welsh players to start off with a Welsh team, as they could get picked up by Swansea, Cardiff, Wrexham, etc. Plus you may attract a few more old pros. And it could benefit Welsh football nationally, which badly needs to nurture the younger players if we ever want to qualify for a major tournament. Tough one.
But yes, Cardiff should get the spot.
If Cardiff win, I think they should be rewarded as any other team would be, as it’s only fair. But they are hardly good enough to challenge for the FA cup every year, so long-term it’s an awful plan, and how do you think their fans would react to their being completely uncompetitive in the league?
And it has to be said that even if the Welsh Premier League had European qualification, it would be to the detriment of some other league soomewhere, and the standard of football in Wales is too poor for that option to be considered.
If I’m honest I think it makes sense to unify the Welsh League and the English League, letting teams like Cardiff start from the Conference or something like that, and get rid of the Welsh league entirely, but I doubt that’d be very popular.
Michael – the League of Wales already has European spots, Champions League spots even. That’s why Liverpool had to play two legs against the Welsh Champions in the first qualifying round in 2005/2006.