TOURNAMENT bosses have defended Premier League clubs’ right to widespread squad rotation in the FA Cup.
Bournemouth made a full 11 changes for Saturday’s third round trip to Millwall, and promptly lost 3-0 in south London. But Football Association chief executive Martin Glenn insisted “it doesn’t upset me” when teams use the competition to juggle their resources.
“I think Bournemouth were an outlier. Eddie Howe can make his own reasons for it,” said Glenn.
“It doesn’t upset me. The Premier League teams really understand the value the FA Cup brings them. You’ll get more viewings of your club on free to air television than you will on paid satellite.
“People want to do well in the cup, but the positive side is that all of these bigger clubs have big squads, you want to give people game time.”
Glenn confirmed England’s governing body will pump more money into the FA Cup, owing to greater worldwide television rights.
The FA will also weigh up whether to scrap television appearance fees to individual teams in the competition, in favour of evenly distributing funds across lower-level clubs.
“The FA Cup is a great way of redistributing money to the lower leagues,” Glenn told the BBC.
“The prize money is £25 million and we’re looking to increase that in the coming years.”
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