The lack of coverage only scratches the surface of the current 'sell-out' version of the FA Cup. While I'm a big believer in moving with the times and adapting, the FA Cup should be left as it is, it's one of few traditions left in football and should stay that way, but it seem's it is too late.
Wigan's fantastic performance today may have re-ignited the romance of the cup, but the romance stays firmly on the pitch. For everyone else, the romance of the cup is dead.
There was 4,000 spare seats at Wembley today and what's the betting on them being in the corporate sections, which occupy almost a third of the stadium? With clubs receiving just over 31,000 tickets each, the game is no longer for the fans. The FA has torn the game away from the people who made the game, almost as badly as Callum McManaman tor Gael Clichy to bits today.
That's before we get started on the price of them tickets and the 5.15pm kick off!
It must have been a great day out though for all the fans, visiting Wembley for the final, that'd be if they hadn't been already for the semi-finals. Another ticket-selling, money-making idea from the FA. Where's the tradition of Villa Park, Old Trafford etc for the semi-finals? It's been sold out to the 90,000 Wembley capacity, it all takes the gloss off the final.
I didn't even know it was the final until yesterday, just one day before the game. Maybe it's just engrained in my brain that the FA Cup final is the finale to the domestic season, sorry I should say was the finale to the domestic season.
While the game itself lived up to the traditions of the FA Cup, the underdog giving it a wholehearted go against the should-be-winners, no sooner had the game finished than we were back to the commercialised competition we have now come to have to accept.
As Wigan lifted the cup, marking their biggest day of the clubs history, Budweiser was emblazoned all over the ribbons, another iconic FA Cup tradition, sold to the highest bidder. No sooner had they lifted the cup, than we were talking about the possible departure of Roberto Mancini, what about covering the winners, celebrating their big day? Instead we have to hear Mancini field questions on his possible future. It's pathetic.
I'm actually surprised we didn't have an ad break as soon as the trophy had been hoisted!
Once the celebrations have ended, I almost imagined we might have got some analysis on the game itself, but we had yet more adverts and then got a couple of clips of the key moments.
It wasn't long before we got the end credits and the coverage was done, maybe a blessing in disguise given the analysis would have been given to us by Chiles, Dixon, Keane and Southgate.
Give the game back to the fans, and return to the traditions. That'd be my hope, but I'm pretty sure that hope is long gone. Time to sit and watch Britain's Got Talent with the City players...
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