Tamworth manager reveals they would have made £1m from a replay against Spurs after finishing 90 minutes at 0-0, but new rules this season saw the game go straight to extra time – where they fell 3-0 to the Premier League side
When FA Cup underdogs Tamworth lost a replay against Premier League powerhouse Spurs, they were refused a £1 million payout.
At Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which has 60,000 seats, manager Andy Peaks explained how they had missed out on the big money spinner. When he faced the multimillionaires from North London on Sunday, his energetic side comprised construction workers who train twice a week.
To fit in workouts, their long-throw specialist Tom Tonks must rise at four in the morning. Despite being 0-0 at 90 minutes, the team was not allowed to travel to London because the FA decided to do away with replays. Instead, Spurs won 3-0 after the game went into extra time.
The Mirror has been advocating for the restoration of replays and the preservation of the FA Cup.
Andy responded, “If we had won, it would have been the greatest FA Cup shock ever,” when asked about missing out on a trip to Spurs. It would have raised a lot of money, and we would have undoubtedly visited their stadium. The boys are at such a place. Rules are rules, of course, and we always knew that. It’s a major deal because I believe the club would have received £1 million.
“It would have made the chairman very happy. How much I would have seen of it is unknown to me. Naturally, the team would have been completely different. Unfortunately, for Premier League clubs, it is different with every game, but for non-league clubs, for us, it
‘We want a replay’ was sung by Tamworth’s 3,200 supporters when the score was tied at 90 minutes.
The Tamworth FC Supporters Club’s Andy Farrington stated: “£1m would have been enormous for us. The new regulations are incredibly unjust to football’s lower levels. Playing for a major team like Spurs is an absolute dream. You enter the tournament for that reason.
“Other non-league clubs around the nation have messaged me to echo what you (the Mirror) have been saying. We are powerless to stop the lower league clubs from being treated unfairly.
The fight to restore the FA Cup’s mystique has garnered a lot of support, according to Niall Couper of the campaign group Fair Game. “This is the ideal illustration of why we want replays to be reinstated,” he remarked. Forty percent of the gate receipts would have gone to Tamworth.The cost of policing would have been extremely low because it would be regarded as a low-risk game. As a result, they lost out on £1 million. You cannot make up for that in any manner.
The game’s staging brought Tamworth £250,000, but last year, the possibility of a second game was eliminated. The FA Cup’s modifications were supported by an FA spokesperson, who said that they were done for the competition’s benefit.
“If you look at the tournament as a whole, lower league clubs will not lose out financially,” they claimed. Looking at the crowded football schedule that affects clubs at all levels, the alterations made are for the tournament’s benefit. The mystique of the cup is still very much in place, as we witnessed over the weekend.
