HUST fully endorses the Club statement on the proposed FA Cup revisions 2024-25 season

Richard Tomkins, HUST chair says “I’m sure, like me, every Hereford fan will find this heartbreaking. Our Club has eloquently stated both the football and financial interest lower league clubs have in this competition. The Football Supporters’ Association had previously made a strong case to the FA along these lines, and indeed cited many examples from previous years. The Hereford v Newcastle match was well to the fore in that case. Unfortunately, the influence of the Premier League has been overbearing. English clubs failure to progress in the Champions League isn’t the fault of the football pyramid, but they want us to pay the unjust price”

Hereford FC Club Statement – FA Cup Format Changes

We would like to express our disappointment at the announcement from the Premier League and Football Association that the format of the FA Cup will be changing, including the scrapping of replays from the First Round onwards.

It is clear this decision has been taken with the views of a small minority of clubs to the fore, placing little or no importance on how significant and special the FA Cup is to hundreds of others – both financially and through the additional interest that is often created in local communities.

Our city was catapulted onto the football map thanks to the exploits of Colin Addison’s Southern League Hereford United team in the 1970s, and his side’s FA Cup Third Round Replay win over First Division Newcastle United in February 1972 remains one of the greatest upsets in the competition’s history. Under the FA Cup’s new rules, a giantkilling exactly like this will no longer be possible, as the match would have to be settled at St James’ Park, without the added drama of a second game at Edgar Street.

We would join the huge number of EFL and non-league clubs in asking the Football Association to suspend this decision until a full consultation has taken place with all the affected stakeholders in the game we love.