Quote:
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basically another round, making it even tougher to win
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Not really. The competition still has the same format after Christmas as it always had.
Under the old system:
R1&R2 - Div 2, Div 3, 8 non-league qualifiers
R3 - SPL, Div 1
Now (I've changed round names to make same as before):
Pre - all non-leaguers
R1 - Div 3
R2 - Div 2, some Div 1
R3 - SPL, some Div 1
The only 'losers' are the lower placed Div 1 sides, who have to enter a round earlier - and the Div 3 sides, who under the old system might have got lucky and been one of the byes straight into R2.
If you ask me, we should make the competition ever more 'all-in':
Pre -
44 = 38 non-league SFA members, 4 SJFA (3 x league winners, 1 x cup winner), 1 winner of competition for senior non-SFA clubs, 1 SAFA (1 x Amateur cup winner)
R1 -
64 = 12 SPL, 30 SFL, 22 winners of previous round
R2 -
32
R3 -
16
R4 -
8
SF -
4
FINAL -
2