How would you improve the PFA Cups

[Cham1]

Gents and Ladies

I would like to open this up for discussion please. With the Saturday league format plans getting the go ahead I thought it would be a good idea to get your views on how the PFA Cups can be improved on, if at all. Please feel free to air your views in a constructive way on how to move forward on both Saturdays and Sundays. Thanks in advance for your valued views.

[bluestar]

Evening Mate, I expressed my views both at the meeting yesterday and previously on this site - namely that in my view I think the PFA Saturday cups are well organsied and offer clubs the opportunity to compete for a cup generally at the standard they play their weekly league games.

I dont believe at this time there is a need for an additional PDFL cup (oops sorry shield!) competition, and I need to be convinced otherwise that the primary reason for this proposal was in fact to rasie additional revenues for the league - would be happy if I was proved wrong on this, but I cant see it at present !

[Cham1]

Thanks Mick for your views.

[Tommy Trophy]

Must be at least 5 years now since I wrote to all member clubs and asked them what they would like to change on the PFA Cups.

I had an over 50% response, and the overriding theme was a rejection by Premier clubs of a 2nd cup competition with everyone involved, so was not surprised when this was thrown out this week. However the lower league clubs ALL wanted the opportunity to play against the higher division clubs so making the Senior club open to all would be one.

I would change the eligibility of PFA Cups so that if you were eligible for a League game that day, you are ok for the PFA Cup. 50% of clubs only play 1 PFA Cup game and to make sure you adhere to a different set of rules is quite an onerous task that seems to result in more clubs being thrown out than is healthy for the integrity of the competition.

Final one would be to try and make the finals on weekends - appreciate that this is difficult with ground availability, but winning a cup on a Monday night does not do much for attendance at work on a Tuesday.

Tommy of the Jungle bored and now looking forward to flight home later!

[bluestar]

Tommy, much as I like the suggestion of a week end cup final - I would be surprised if it came to fruition - on a similar vein we had to play in a Friday final a couple of years ago - and were refused when we tried to get our league game cancelled the following day - despite making the request several weeks in advance, celebrations apparently had to wait !!!!!

[Hairy]

I think the actual format of the PFA competition's is fine and i would see no reason for them to change.

My worry for The PFA competitions is that over the last few seasons i think they have received a lot more negative criticism from clubs due to i would say is a communication issue on the both PFA's and the club's side. I can apprecaiate that it is a difficult thing to manage at times but sometimes a bit more transparency on why a decision has been made, would for eg go along way in repairing a relationship which in some cases has gone.

I have no problem with the PFA mainly beacuse i read the rules and if i miss it then Ron certainly does not.
But maybe to build better relationships with others the PFA could send out some sort of email the week beginning each round and just highlight the main rules for eg, Player Qualification to all the teams. I know people will say just read the rules and i agree but just show a wiilling to help and also makes it very clear to clubs.

I have twice in the last week had to ask permission to play players in the quarter finals mainly due to the poor weather in Nov/Dec as they had not played a league game and the PFA have been very helpful.

Also do all the teamsheets get checked for these rules? because in my experience it usually takes a complaint to be made before it's investigated. This is what i mean by comminication and tranparency. Also trusting that if you adhere to the rules others are also doing so.

[Cham1]

Thanks lads. Keep them coming. Some great points already

[Hairy]

Also maybe the PFA could also look into having a team/player of the round.

[Cham1]

Not sure about an official team or player of the round, although what I think we could look at in my opinion would be a Peterborough Football Player of the year. I know the ET have a footballer of the year, but that is usually won by a POSH player. Again thanks for the ideas. Coops I like the idea of a Weekend final. Thanks. Happy Flighting

[Ross]

PST UK could potentially sponsor a PFA player of the year

[Admin]

In view of my earlier discussion with Cham1, I'd be happy to support that award alongside you Ross and arrange for votes to be accepted from each round via a thread on this site.

[Ross]

I'm sure we could come up with something Raph.

[PSMFL]

Having a player of the round/competition or otherwise would lay enough problems at anyones doorstep, e.g. Big Freds team play a team a division lower and Fred sits in the opponents penalty box for 90 mins and scores 6 out of 11, Tommy plays in midfield for his lower league side and runs his legs off and sets up the only goal against a team from same dvision.
Big Fred and his mates all belong to PST but Tommys & his team mates don't know PST exists. Big Fred wins another "pot" that means nothing to him.
I have watched teams/players throw away their runners up awards because they wanted to win and runners up awards don't mean a thing.
I have seen teams refuse to collect divisional runners up awards because they don't care. So why give them another trophy to discard.
Saturday/Sunday Finals is the way to go.

[mattsedd]

:0)

[Cham1]

:0)

If you are sure then Matt, would you be so kind as to share your ideas either on here or by sending me a private message. Looking forward to your reply. Thanks

[mattsedd]

InMy personal oppinion , seen as you asked, the pfa cup competition would be improved by having a group of people capable of interpretting their own rules and with enough backbone to stand up for what is right. Rule6 paragraph 1a applies. Except when it doesn't suite you. It's an absolute disgrace that you will aply that rule to one of your member clubs, but not to the team they are facing. You should be ashamed of yourself as an organisation. And if you're interpretations of the rules are correct- which I guess somebody else will need to decide upon, then the rules in your competition are discriminatory against every reserve side, and there is no point us entering. By your definition, this particular side can play their entire Ucl first team side in the cup final, but their opponents cannot play a single player who has recently featured for the First team. That , in my oppion, is disgusting. Seen as you asked. And this is my personal oppinion on how the pfa cups could be improved

[Cham1]

Thank you Matt for your honest opinion. Anything else?

[eddie c s]

I think my brother is slightly disgusted. In my personal opinion on this matter , as Mick stated early in the thread it's a good competition to play people of the same standard , to go toe to toe in battle on a level playing field . Now although i personally don't like going through to finals in this sort of mannor ,we were outplayed for most parts , rules r rules and this is a rule breech. If they can play ucl players and we can't play 1 first team player then the competition is not a fair one .
I'm quite happy to play against better opposition but u don't get Rooney playing in the fa vase .
Anyway I guess Ron will be studying the rule book as we speak . He's not often wrong .
They also excluded both netherton youth teams from Entering the cup competition offering free admission into next years cup as a sorry . Lol . Good to see they drew the cup again and common sense prevailed there as they are both in the final now.
In general I think the Pfa do a great job and this thread from the pfa can do nothing more than help ways to improve football in the area .

[Admin]

.. plus at least you now have a dialogue with the PDFL, PSMFL and PFA through this site ... something which never happened before and should be applauded.

[Cham1]

Guys the whole point of this thread was to seek views on how the PFA competitions can be improved. As a PFA council member I am not prepared to comment on any individual cases that may still be subject to further hearing or action. The PFA is no different to any other club or league in that they are manned by volunteers. The numbers of volunteers are reducing year on year and as such many of the same people serve on many of the same committees. That can not be healthy and needs to change going forward. Matt as I have said on many occasions on this forum in the past it is so easy to mud sling, name call on forums such as this one, but it seems a little bit harder to put names forward to serve on committees and help address the slide in numbers as above.