I might sound like Victor Meldrew but I can’t believe it! The shameful decisions to end FA Cup replays and the exclusion by the ECB of Sussex Women from the top tier of English cricket

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 24th April 2024)

I’m told that I am rapidly turning into Victor Meldrew, grumbling and complaining at the smallest incident that annoys me. On Saturday, I was unable to find the stream for a rugby game from Cape Town that I had been looking forward to watching. Apparently, according to my wife and daughter, I kept muttering: “I don’t believe it”. The daughter’s boyfriend even called me Victor, thus making us two peas in a pod. I finally found the stream on BBC Wales but the commentary was in Welsh. My mood wasn’t helped by my beloved Stormers being beaten by the Ospreys from Cardiff.

In mainstream sport, there have been two decisions taken in recent weeks that have put me in Victoria-Meldrew-on-steroids mode. These decisions demonstrate that both football and cricket are run for the benefit of elite clubs rather than for all.

In football, the Football Association and the Premier League have decided that no longer will there be replays in the FA Cup.  There was no consultation with Football League, National League or grassroots clubs for whom the competition represents not only their best opportunity to create life-long memories for supporters but also a hugely important source of income. FA Council members were not consulted about the changes.  The decision, and the way it was taken, demonstrate a total lack of respect for the football pyramid and its fans. Football belongs to all of us and decisions should not be taken in back room deals in which only the very wealthiest clubs are allowed to participate.

Those behind this decision are the clubs that compete regularly in European football competitions. They complain that there are too many fixtures and, for them, the FA Cup is a minor irritation, especially in the early rounds when they run the risk of slumming it with the likes of Yeovil Town, Crawley and Stoke City. After all , what sums up the FA Cup better than a replay on a cold Tuesday night in Stoke?  Even worse, the foreign-owned clubs might get drawn away against a non-League side. My fantasy fixture would be either of the Manchester teams, City or United, being drawn away at The Dripping Pan to face the Mighty Rooks, Lewes FC. A replay could mean that their pristine grounds being contaminated by teams from the lower leagues and, worse still, plebs like me who support the likes of Lewes.

In cricket, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed last week the eight First Class Counties who have been successful in their bid to be awarded Tier 1 women’s team status from 2025: Durham, Essex, Hampshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Somerset, Surrey, and Warwickshire. Joining them, by 2027, will be Glamorgan and Yorkshire, who have been named as the first two Tier 1 expansion teams. Sussex and Kent, who have done so much to nurture women’s cricket in this country, have been excluded. As longstanding Sussex supporter Steve Hanson said, “Sussex were the forerunners for women’s cricket” and that “we staged matches when no-one was interested and now they don’t want us.”

The decision on who to include was not taken on cricketing performance. Had this been so, Sussex, led so well by Georgia Adams, would have definitely been included. They have won the Women’s County Championship six times since 2003 (twice as many championships than the Sussex men have ever achieved), and have won the Women’s Twenty20 Cup twice in the 15 years of that competition. Last year, playing as the Sussex Vipers, coached by the former England captain Charlotte Edwards, they won the Rachel Heyhoe Flint Trophy and retained the Charlotte Edwards Cup.

The ECB has announced that First Class Counties like Sussex, who were not awarded Tier 1 status, will now be involved in a process to determine the composition of Tier 2 and Tier 3 which will also involve National Counties (i.e. not First Class Counties) in the new-look women’s domestic competition structure.  But what is as egregious as the decision to exclude the likes of Sussex and Kent, is the decision that for the duration of the 2025-2028 seasons all three tiers will be ‘closed’, with no promotion or relegation.  How ridiculous and how protectionist it is that the favoured few will be guaranteed a spot in the elite Tier 1, no matter how poor their cricket and how deserving the winners of Tier 2 might be.

Clearly merit is not something the ECB cares about, and women’s cricket will be the poorer for this shameful decision.

Filled with all the optimism that characterise your average Stoke City supporter, I predict a 2-0 win for Brighton in tomorrow’s FA Cup tie

This Saturday, Brighton and Hove Albion visit Stoke City in the Third Round of the FA Cup. This will be the third time that the clubs have met in the FA Cup: in February 2011 when Stoke City won 3-0 in the 4th Round and last year in the 5th Round when Brighton won 1-0.

The clubs have played each other 42 times in all competitions since their first meeting in 1958 (a 3-0 win for Stoke). Stoke City have won 16 times and the Albion have emerged victorious in just ten games. The remaining 16 ties ended in draws. Before last year’s meeting in the FA Cup, Brighton had had gone winless in the previous 10 games, not having won against the Potters since September 2001.  Since then, Stoke have won eight times and two games, in the 2017/18 Premier League season, ended in draws with an aggregate score of 23 goals for Stoke and seven to the Albion.

A lifelong Stoke City supporter with friends Mark and Neil, Cape Town c1974

So why, you might ask, am I such an anorak regarding this particular rivalry? I have been a lifelong supporter of the once Mighty Potters. When growing up in South Africa, when all my friends began supporting Manchester United, Chelsea or Liverpool, the only two places in England I had heard of were London and Stoke-on-Trent (where my dad was born). Since there was no London United or London City, I opted for Stoke City who were, at the time, flying high near the top of the table.

Loyalty to a football club runs deep. Yet there is so much I dislike about Stoke City – the use of the song ‘Delilah’ as one of the club anthems, its ownership by a betting company, and the misery its results have caused me for these past 50 years or more (with fixtures against Brighton being the exception).

So, how will it go tomorrow? Filled with all the optimism that characterises your average Stoke City supporter, I predict a 2-0 win for Brighton. I just hope that the result won’t be worse than that. In a perfect world, the game will end in a draw and Stoke will win the replay at the Amex with me cheering on the Mighty Potters.

A defeat for Stoke is an unhappily familiar experience, but I won’t be too disappointed given that it means Brighton progressing and I do have a soft spot for the Albion. I enjoy my occasional visits to the Amex with my friends Kim or Robert. I watch the Albion whenever they are on television, and I am loving their style of football and the spirit within the team.

But tomorrow there will be just one team for me. Come on you Potters.

(This item is an amended and updated extract from an original column I had published in the Brighton Argus).

Can Brighton and Hove Albion do it on a cold rainy Tuesday night in Stoke?

(This item was first published in the Brighton Argus on 22nd February 2023)

Next Tuesday evening Brighton and Hove Albion will hope to make it through to the quarterfinals of the FA Cup when they take on Stoke City in the Potteries.  The Albion should win. After all, they are the form team hoping to secure a place in Europe next season. Meanwhile, Stoke City are in a relegation battle near the foot of the Championship.

A cold rainy night in Stoke

But can the Albion “do it on a cold rainy Tuesday night in Stoke?” This question was originally asked of Lionel Messi amid speculation as to whether he could shine in English conditions. 

For a Premier League club, this is the worst of all draws, away to a lower league team. And over the years the Potters have been a bit of a bogey team for the Seagulls.

The clubs have played each other 41 times since their first meeting in 1958 (a 3-0 win for Stoke). Stoke City have won 16 times and the Albion have emerged victorious in just nine games. The remaining 16 ties ended in draws. The last time Brighton won was 11 games ago, in September 2001. 

Since then, Stoke have won eight times and two games, in the 2017/18 Premier League season, ended in draws with an aggregate score of 23 goals for Stoke and six to the Albion.  The clubs have met just once before in the FA Cup, in February 2011, when Stoke City won 3-0 in the 4th Round.

So, you might ask, why am I such an anorak regarding this particular rivalry? I have been a lifelong supporter of the once Mighty Potters. When growing up in South Africa, when all my friends began supporting Manchester United, Chelsea or Liverpool, the only two places in England I had heard of were London and Stoke-on-Trent (where my dad was born). Since there was no London United or London City, I opted for Stoke City who were, at the time, flying high near the top of the table.

Loyalty to a football club runs deep. Yet there is so much I dislike about Stoke City – the use of the song ‘Delilah’ as one of the club anthems, its ownership by a betting company, and the misery its results have caused me for these past 50 years or more (with fixtures against Brighton being the exception).

So, how will it go next Tuesday evening? Filled with all the optimism that characterises your average Stoke City supporter, I predict a 2-0 win for Brighton. I just hope that the result won’t be worse than that.

A defeat for Stoke is an unhappily familiar experience, but I won’t be too disappointed given that it means Brighton progressing as I have a soft spot for the Albion. I enjoy my occasional visits to the Amex with my friends Kim or Robert. I watch the Albion whenever they are on television, and I am loving their style of football and the spirit within the team.

This coming Sunday, I will be at a different FA Cup 5th Round clash, between Lewes Women and Cardiff City Ladies at The Dripping Pan in Lewes. The Rooks have never made it this far in the competition and, unlike Stoke City, should progress to the quarterfinals where we would hope the draw will see one of the Women Super League teams, perhaps Manchester United or Manchester City, coming to the Pan, their equivalent of ‘a cold rainy Tuesday night in Stoke’.

If you have never watched a game at The Dripping Pan, there are two games this weekend.  Come along. On Saturday Lewes Men take on Billericay Town (kickoff 3.00pm) and on Sunday it is the Lewes Women’s FA Cup game (kickoff at 2.00pm).

Lewes FC has been in the forefront of a campaign to get equal recognition, and prize money, for the men and women’s FA Cup. In the next week, the winner of the Brighton v Stoke game will receive £225,000, while the winner of the Lewes v Cardiff City Ladies game, or the Cup games between Chelsea and Arsenal, Manchester United and Durham, or the Albion Women against Coventry United Ladies, will receive just £20,000.

The overall winners of the men’s FA Cup will receive £2 million, while the women’s FA Cup winners will receive just £100,000. 

And before anyone begins to talk about entertainment and value, anyone who attended the Women’s Euro games at the Amex last year, or who watches the imperious England Lionesses as they extend their unbeaten run, will know all about quality entertainment and value. Women’s football is far superior to the moaning, overpaid rich boys who make up many Premier League clubs.

You won’t find me at Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford, or the Emirates. Give me the Dripping Pan or a cold rainy Tuesday night in Stoke any day.

(Update 27/02/23: Lewes Women beat Cardiff City Ladies 6-1)

(Update 28/02/23: Brighton beat Stoke City 1-0)