This weekend sees the highest stakes football match in history worth a cool £1m a minute to the winner, not a bad hourly rate … but no, it’s not the Champions Bloody League final in Madrid (… which is already being engraved into the record books as ‘0-0 [aet] Inter win 4-3 on pens’).

On Saturday, the Real FA Cup will be frequenting the Football League Championship Play-off final, an unlikely contest between Cardiff City v Blackpool for a place in the Premier League. Deloitte recently crunched some numbers and came up with the jaw dropping £90m windfall figure, up some 50% on the haul last year’s winners Burnley are in the process of taking back to the caves of East Lancashire.

‘That’s not the FA Cup’ I hear you say but it has been a combined total of only 140 years since either side actually won the FA Cup and the Play-offs always ends the season with moments of high tension and excitement (insert extra clichéd platitude ‘here’) … okay, I’m a Blackpool fan, I admit it, but as we are in the FA Cup close season, I feel justified in dragging the boys down Wembley way. The game will be an interesting contest between two footballing sides but the respective goings-on in boardroom is where it raises some wider questions and, quite possibly, a parable for teams trying to climber up the greasy poll of the football pyramid.

The media could be perhaps be forgiven for not being inspired by two clubs who are more well known, on the one side, for their profligate chairman and kamikaze financial strategy and, on the other, for an oddball manager and, well, not much else but for the fact that the town has a tower. But behind the banal set-piece media factoids, there are two dovetailing stories.

Both teams started their current quest for the summit back in 2001 in the days when there was something called a ‘Nationwide League Division Three’, whatever that was. The Bluebirds quickly followed up with another promotion in the 2003 Play-offs, incidentally, at the expense of one Ian Holloway, current Blackpool manager. They were followed four years later by Blackpool. Both sides are now established Championship teams, finishing fourth and seventh respectively. They both battled through dramatic Play-off semi-finals, Cardiff piping Leicester on penalties after Yann Kermorgant (penno here at 3:25) remembered too late that he wasn’t quite as good at chipping penalties as Zidane, and Blackpool emerging atop after cocking a snook at Billy ‘Im everyone’s favourite obnoxious Scottish manager’ Davies beating his Forest side for the fourth time this season.

Current form offers little to separate the two teams with the Bluebirds registering five wins and the Seasiders six in their last eight league games. Come 3pm on Saturday, it is more than likely to be a battle between Peter Whittingham and Charlie Adam, the two goal-scoring midfield maestros who have been central to their side’s fortunes this season. Cardiff have the fire power in Michael Chopra and Jay Bothroyd, but Blackpool’s loose attacking 4-3-3 with three interchanging strikers has proven its capacity to unlock even the tightest of defences, provided DJ Campbell doesn’t frequent anymore West London nightclubs before the weekend. And, especially for the thrill seeking neutral, both defences appear to suffer occasional bouts of goal-shipping incontinence.

The thing which stands out though, even to the partial observer, is that both teams are quite similar, in their recent record, their style of play and their personnel. Cardiff are clearly the bigger club, both money and support-wise and their recent foray in the 2008 FA Cup stands out above Blackpool’s most recent cup run highlights, in the Sherpa Vans trophy. Yet on Saturday, they both stand as equals, one tension fuelled game away from untold riches and the prize of trips to top football clubs like Stoke, Fulham, Blackburn and Wigan, not to mention visits to leisure/entertainment businesses like Chelsea and Man U inc.

The real difference is the paths taken and the contrasting approaches over the past 9 seasons, specifically, the contrast between the Ridsdalean and Oystonian approaches to financial management.

‘Risa’ surely needs no introduction with his legendary efforts to destroy Leeds Utd still being appreciated by the likes of Danny Mills, who is probably still on the pay roll years after leaving. He really does put the ‘b’ in bankrupt, and his tenure at Cardiff has been no different. An ill-balanced wage bill topped by Chopra, allegedly on up to £20k a week, a Fowler + helicopter taxi combo, a stadium development hanging around the club’s neck like a millstone and a man from Her Majesty’s Customer and Excise dressed in a wolf costume and knocking on the club door, have all done little to endear the man to Cardiff faithful.

Karl Oyston is probably less well known to football fans at large but he too has garnered his fair share of opprobrium among his club’s fans but not for his hair cut. His crime, however, has been one of miserliness; a two-sided ground, £90-a-week summer wages for players, steep hikes in ticket prices and a refusal to pay for a sign on the stadium until fans stumped up most of the cost. He has always followed a strict book-balancing policy keeping Blackpool surprisingly debt free. Money has come into the club, especially, in recent years from mysterious hermaphramonickered benefactor Valerie Belokon, but it has been spent sparingly and been channelled mainly into adding a third side to the ground.

Oyston’s most telling influence though has been in his management appointments. Ignoring the existence of the entity going by the name ‘Colin Hendry’, the run of Steve McMahon, Simon Grayson, Tony Parkes and Ian Holloway, has taken the club from the basement to just shy of the top table and all on a shoestring, in ten years the club has spent barely £2m on transfer fees and the wage bill is the second lowest in the championship.

So as the two narratives collide after nine years apart, are there lessons to be drawn, is there real meaning to the madness, the horror, the endless poetry!? You are expecting, no doubt, an attempt to portray the final as an epic battle between good and evil, ‘real football’ versus big-money for the soul of the game.

Certainly, as Cardiff’s obscene debt leaves the £30m mark behind, those vast Premiership riches begin to look more like a sticking plaster to counter-balance the vast stakes, including quite probably the very existence of the club, wagered on achieving promotion. But Oyston (left), in his small-town, rolls of £10 notes under the bed-type of way has hardly been carrying through a master plan blue print of how smaller clubs can climb the pyramid on a shoe string. There are no black and whites, no reassuring simplifications but there is something.

The game, whatever the result, gives us hope that money isn’t everything. It surely helps, and shit loads-a-money surely helps a whole lot more. In the end though, there would appear to still be a place for success based on wise decisions about football, although I’m sure the Premier League Board will soon be legislating to close this outrageous loop hole. For teams from Darlington to Exeter, from Southend to Carlisle, from Whitley Bay to Margate, the possibility of advancement does not depend solely on the local oil sheik, mortgaging your club’s future or even the wholesaling of grandparents.

Prediction: 3-1 Cardiff (
ANDY TAYLOR

If the rumours are anywhere near true then a team struggling to avoid relegation into League 1 and with a £40million pile of debt are about to roll a very big dice by spending £3million on an erratic solution to their goalscoring problem. I really do despair.*

With the Real FA Cup now OVER, we must keep ourselves occupied with money, sorry, football. Fraudian slip there. But not in the last sentence. The Real FA Vase is born! Yay for the Real FA Vase! For this week, anyway.

So, where are we going and why. Chertsey and because they’re playing last year’s winners, Whitley Bay, who we missed seeing over Christmas thanks to the rubbish lack of heat and presence of hard floors.

OK, there’s a leap from Ipswich Town, the aforementioned money throwers, to Whitley Bay but there is tenuous relevance why I mentioned them at the head of this piece. Personally, the other half is from Whitley, hence the Christmas visit, and, secondly, Whitley’s finest recent FA Cup moment was a victory over Preston North End in the 3rd round in 1990. This weekend, Preston beat the aforementioned big spenders, Ipswich Town, of whom I have the misfortune to consider myself a ‘fan’. The circle of life is complete. More pertinently, that infernal bunch of overpaid, undertalented blue wearing annoyances are the main reason this website exists. Gah.

The truth is, the last time we went to Chertsey, the game was gash, they were gash and they lost to the rozzers and Simon entertained with some pig punnery. I say ‘we’ but ‘I’ missed that game so ‘I’ int bin. Innit. Chertsey of the Combined Counties have managed the QFs of the Vase twice.

Being the Southerner, I guess I should root for Chertsey but, hey, give me the choice and I’ll be like an England captain in a sweet shop. Whitley are at the same level of the pyramid but two time winners and current holders of the Vase. Quick question but why isn’t the trophy for the FA Vase, a vase?

So, this is going to be novel. Off out on the lash to a game of footy with the lady! First time ever! First time in the 11 years I’ve known her. It’s not that she doesn’t like footy, she does, I think. Although she is offended by the rewards thicko players get in relation to the ‘arts’ and is not a big fan of elements of some club’s support, she did once have a Reading season ticket, of all things. I am half expecting her to bottle it though. *waves* [she won't read this anyway]

Whitley are stumbling after the Christmas whiteout, the previous round being their only win in four games since the freeze. Chertsey on the other hand have only played 2 games in 6 weeks and they won both of them. John Pomroy has 7 goals in the Vase but will he add to them this weekend? Glancing out the window, this week seems to be getting frosty again so we’ll have to keep an eye out for cancellations.

Both of these teams are in the odd position of having good seasons, in the top 3 of their league but miles behind the leaders. Any interesting gossip on either team, Tweet us, add comments below or email us! Cheers.

Damon.

*I no longer despair, this turns out to be only rumour. Thank god. I’m not changing it though, unless some other teams spends a desperate amount of money …

Here we go then, it’s time for the next round, the round that all still present have been hoping lands them a payday and 15 minutes of fame. We hope they got what they wanted but some of them probably didn’t.

A Doncaster Rovers Twitter feed has already apologised to Brentford fans hoping for a glamourous tie. Kettering now know they have probably just lost their best ever chance of taking on Manchester United. And there are quite a few ‘league games’ from Championship and Premier League that no team will be happy with and fewer fans will turn up to. An extra game just after Christmas and we’re suspecting attendances will take a hit this year.

So, what games do we find interesting? Well, obviously the lower ranked ones but, in particular, these:

Notts County v Forest Green

Sven and Backe will have no idea who Forest Green are and even less idea about where it is. Forest Green must be absolutely cursing their luck. The 3rd worst Blue Square Premier side have now been in 3 rounds with league teams present and this is the first time they’ve actually drawn one. In Round 1 they were drawn away at high flying Conference side Mansfield. Somehow , and surprisingly, they overcame them and were ‘rewarded’ with an away tie at lowly Bath City. Banana skin avoided they must have groaned when, with Notts County already drawn, Sir Redgrave culled their little number with his massive great hands. Not only non-glamourous but also likely defeat. What a sad lack of reward for getting to round 3, they must have thought. But, Notts County are not unbeatable and they are only in the league below The Green. So, maybe Forest Green are this year’s surprise package to reach the latter rounds?

Sunderland v Oxford United or Barrow

This is interesting, Premier League against non-league. Sunderland are erratic too, inspired one week, hopeless the next. Of course, there is a replay to decide who gets to be the lamb being brought to slaughter … but … One outcome could see the 1985 League Cup runners up against the 1986 winners and, at the time, Oxford were the better side. Sunderland, along with winners Norwich, were both relegated from the top flight after they were in the final. Oxford only avoided the same fate on the last day of the season in the following year but they survived and spent a rare few years above Sunderland in the pyramid. How fortunes have changed. Indeed, even in 2003 when these two teams met and Sunderland won 2-0, there was already a huge gap.

Barrow, on the other hand, haven’t been a league side since being voted out of the old Division 4 in favour of Hereford United in 1972. Even when they were in the league they only troubled the third tier briefly, most time was spent in Division 4. Also, they have never played Sunderland in meaningful competition. Barrow are, currently, enjoying something of a renaissance and they’ve retained an FA Cup interest well into November in most recent seasons. In last season’s 3rd round they gave the Mackems North East rivals Middlesborough a big scare in a 2-1 defeat, similar scare given to Bristol Rovers in 2006 by 3 goals to 2.

Huddersfield v WBA

This one is odd, two old clubs with fairly rich FA Cup histories but they have only played each other once, in 1929! Huddersfield won, after a replay, and went on to the semis. Between them, Huddersfield and West Brom have played in 15 FA Cup finals, the former have won it only once but West Brom have managed it five times but, obviously, not for some time of course. However, we’ve picked this game out for entertainment as much as for the rich history. Both these teams are right up at the business end of their respective leagues but, more importantly, they are both the top scorers in their league so we’re hoping this could be one of the games of the round.

We’ll have a ponder on the fixtures and see if we have enough for a short list of real games for next round’s vote!

FA CUP 3rd Round DRAW

Tottenham v Peterborough United
Brentford v Doncaster Rovers
Middlesbrough v Manchester City
Stoke City v York City
Notts County v Forest Green Rovers
Huddersfield Town v West Bromwich Albion
Sheffield United v QPR
MK Dons v Burnley
Chelsea v Watford
Nottingham Forest v Birmingham City
Preston North End v Colchester United
West Ham United v Arsenal
Aston Villa v Blackburn Rovers
Portsmouth v Coventry City
Sunderland v Oxford United or Barrow
Wigan Athletic v Hull City
Everton v Carlisle United
Sheffield Wednesday v Crystal Palace
Tranmere Rovers or Aldershot Town v Wolves
Blackpool v Ipswich Town
Fulham v Swindon Town
Stockport County or Torquay v Brighton
Scunthorpe United v Barnsley
Southampton v Rotherham United or Luton Town
Bristol City v Cardiff City
Reading v Liverpool
Staines Town or Millwall v Derby County
Plymouth Argyle v Newcastle United
Leicester City v Swansea City
Bolton Wanderers v Lincoln City
Accrington Stanley or Barnet v Gillingham
Manchester United v Kettering Town or Leeds United

Tomorrow night we’re heading to Griffin Park to, rather childishly, do the four corners pub run and, more seriously, go to a game to see if Gateshead can pull off an unlikely cupset.

After strolling to the League 2 title last year, Brentford could arguably have been expecting a bit more from the season so far. However, last year’s fellow promotees, Wycombe, find themselves ten points worse off and a manager down already. The other two, Gillingham and Exeter, have exactly the same points as the Bees. League 2′s tag as a tricky one this year would seem to have some basis in truth.

Gateshead find themselves in an almost identical position having also been promoted last season and currently lurking dangerously near the relegation places. The three points and two places above the drop zone they find themselves in the Blue Square Premier could be worse but for Chester’s disaster of a season. But, there are glimmers of hope for this former league side. They have a wealthy benefactor, plans for a new stadium and a well-thought-of manager and early season jitters are settling with performances improving.

We won’t pretend to know more than reports and blogs tell us about the Gateshead players but we gather that Andrew Haworth, on loan from Blackburn, showed some promise on debut. They’ve also scored 5 goals in their last 2 games, albeit with 7 going the other way, and performances are on the up. They have a few players with league experience, not least former Newcastle nearly man Martin Brittain (currently injured), former Ipswich defender Chris Swailes and prolific on-loan Mansfield striker Darryl Clare. Clare netted twice at the weekend as Gateshead put up a spirited display against 2nd place Stevenage in the league.

Brentford have on loan Derby keeper Lewis Price in goal, experience in Carl Cort and, possibly, the ludicrous firepower of onloan Spurs starlet John Bostock. We don’t know if he can play tonight or not, the Bees website seems to suggest he’s in the England u19 squad to play Turkey on Tuesday. The Tynesiders should probably hope he is unavailable, he netted two on his debut against Millwall on Saturday.

We’re hoping for more quality from this game than Northern based FA Cup fan Paul Kirkwood got on Saturday, link to his report and blog below. Heeds or Bees, Heeds or Bees, Heeds or Bees. North or south. It’s a long way home.

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