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Sponsors determined to keep Man U in FA Cup

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Posted: Thursday July 08, 1999 09:14 PM

Manager Alex Ferguson (left), and Manchester United, feel that playing in Brazil would help England earn the right to host the 2006 World Cup. AP

LONDON (AP) -- The sponsors of the FA Cup are still detrmined to keep reigning champion Manchester United in the competition.

United withdrew from next season's edition of the 127-year-old tournament in order to play in the inaugural World Club Championship in Brazil.

The decision to compete in the FIFA-backed club tournament in January was intended to boost England's bid for the 2006 World Cup.

United accepted a Football Association offer of an exemption from the FA Cup next season.

The Cup sponsors, insurance company AXA, offered to fly United's fourth-round opponents to Brazil but the idea was immediately rejected by the FA.

The FA said flying another English team to Brazil to play against United, which was already participating in another tournament, was "complete and utter nonsense."

AXA Assurance spokesman Phil Hickley said the Brazilian Cup venue was just one of a number of ideas to enable United to defend the FA Cup. Others haven't been discussed with the FA.

"We have not even attempted to consider their feasibility, and of course, Manchester United would have to take part in any decision," he said. "What we are trying to do is to think of ways around the issue. We're trying to offer a solution."

United's decision to skip the FA Cup outraged fans, who say the oldest, most prestigious cup competition in the world has been devalued.

Responding to the initial AXA offer, FA spokesman Steve Double said it was "unworkable."

"It ignores the fact that United are committed to play a number of games in Brazil, and it would mean the competition would be taken out of English football's jurisdiction," he said.

Manchester United chief Martin Edwards said the club decided to play in Brazil to bolster England's chances of winning the right to host the 2006 World Cup.

But Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who guided the Gunners to a league and FA Cup double in 1997-98, said United's decision amounted to "killing off the tournament."

He said United's decision was based on "business and political" reasons and a compromise could have been made, particularly considering the size of United's squad.

"It's a bad decision. The FA Cup is famous worldwide, and for such a prestigious club like Manchester United to be out of the competition ... it's not normal," he said.

Wenger even suggested that United could have been given a bye into the fifth round of the FA Cup, which wouldn't be unreasonable under the circumstances.

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson said the club had made a tough decision and was going to stick with it.

But England's Professional Players Association spokesman Gordon Taylor accused United of "hiding behind the Union Jack."

He also said Manchester United lacked the spirit it showed by entering a team in the FA Cup after the Munich air disaster in 1958, when eight players were among 23 people killed in a plane crash.

"Days after the Munich air crash, Manchester United had a team playing in the FA Cup," he said. "They then had a team in the European Cup and they stayed in both competitions.

"It's incredible to think that four decades on they have dropped out of this FA Cup with the resources they have."

Taylor said the Red Devils were going to Brazil because they wanted to, not because of parochialism or government pressure.

"I don't think that it would have been any different had [England] not been bidding for the World Cup."

And FIFA president Sepp Blatter said soccer's world governing body had no influence on United's decision.

"I understand and support the fans who are unhappy with their club's decision not to participate in a competition that is a real highlight of the English football calendar," he was quoted saying Thursday in the tabloid Daily Star.

In Los Angeles, UEFA president Lennart Johansson said Thursday that United's appearance in the World Club Championship likely will be the last time Europe fields a team in the tournament.

"Most probably," the Swedish head of Europe's governing body said. "[FIFA] ask us always to give in. And we always try to show politeness. But with the present calendar, the leagues have great problems to participate."

"We try it once to gain experience," Johansson said before a UEFA Executive Committee session Thursday, part of a series of meetings by he international soccer community leading up to the Women's World Cup final Saturday.

"But you see what has happened. Manchester United has asked out of the FA Cup. We cannot ask out teams to compete in some competitions and not in others. I must say we cannot force our clubs, our leagues to participate in all these competitions with the present calendar.

"If we fixed the calendar, and then we can see what is feasible. But we have done it the other way around. I doubt we will do this again."

 

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