New FA Cup and Carabao Cup plan set to impact Brighton, Arsenal, Tottenham, West Ham, Chelsea and Crystal Palace

Brighton and Hove could be set for lunchtime kick-offs for weekend league and FA Cup matches to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, a new survey has found.
Premier League outfit Brighton and Hove Albion advanced in the Carabao Cup last month at Forest Green RoversPremier League outfit Brighton and Hove Albion advanced in the Carabao Cup last month at Forest Green Rovers
Premier League outfit Brighton and Hove Albion advanced in the Carabao Cup last month at Forest Green Rovers

Brighton are next in Carabao Cup action on November 9 against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Roberto De Zerbi's Albion – along with all the other Premier League teams – will enter the FA Cup this season at the third round proper, set to take place on the weekend of January 7.

Sixty-three per cent of 40 clubs – including 12 EFL teams – surveyed by football reform group Fair Game over the last fortnight said they would consider earlier kick-offs to help reduce energy bills as the hours of daylight diminish, if they were given permission.

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Overall, clubs rated their concern about the cost-of-living crisis at seven out of 10, rising to more than eight out of 10 among League Two teams.

Sixty per cent of the 40 clubs are considering halting ground improvement work as a result of the crisis, while 38 per cent are preparing to look at their non-playing staff budgets.

The survey’s publication comes as Premier League clubs prepare to hold further discussions around a new financial distribution model to support the EFL and the rest of the pyramid.

Changes to the domestic calendar from 2024 also form part of the ‘New Deal’ discussions, and Premier League clubs are understood to be largely in agreement on the idea of wanting to ditch FA Cup third and fourth-round replays, which have historically been an important source of income for lower-league clubs.

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Top-flight teams are understood to be less aligned on the future of the Carabao Cup.

It is understood the league’s ‘Big Six’ clubs unanimously favour the idea of allowing teams who are playing in Europe to either enter an under-21 team into the Carabao Cup or not enter it at all.

Fair Game chief executive Niall Couper said the survey results were a further demonstration of why action was urgently needed.

“The results paint a very bleak future for football outside the top echelons of the game,” he said.

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“Having survived the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis could well be the death knell for the hard-working community clubs lower down the pyramid.

“Lower-league football clubs are the heartbeat of their communities, but right now they are in intensive care.

“The Premier League are at best going to offer a sticking plaster. They have had decades to address the problem and they should stand aside.

“It is now up to the Government to intervene. The recent fan-led Review set up by the Conservative Party revealed the financial flow within the game, and the governance that sits behind it, is broken.

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“Fair Game are calling for action now. We were promised levelling up, instead we could see the levelling of football stadia across the country with decades of history and tradition wiped off the map.

“The Government needs to deliver on its promise of an independent regulator now. A regulator that can oversee football’s financial flow. Without it the pyramid of our national game will crumble.”