COVID-19 Spike Causes FA Cup To Cancel Round 3 And 4 Replays

Illustration - Swindon Town Stables (Twitter @Official_STFC)

JAKARTA - The English football federation, the FA, announced early Tuesday that it had agreed to abolish the rematch format for the third and fourth rounds of the FA Cup. The games were originally scheduled to take place in January and February 2022.

If the match ends in a draw after 90 minutes of normal time, the match will proceed to 2x15 minutes of extra time and a penalty shoot-out if necessary, the FA's official website announced as quoted by Antara.

The decision was taken by the FA Board on Friday, 17 December after clubs submitted it, following a surge in COVID-19 cases affecting many teams.

The crisis caused many domestic league matches to be suspended because some teams did not have sufficient numbers of players to compete nor had the opportunity to access training facilities that were closed due to the COVID-19 spike.

Last weekend in the highest caste, the English Premier League, only four of the 10 scheduled matches could take place because COVID-19 cases soared amid the spread of the omicron variant.

However, the latest report from the BBC states that Premier League clubs have agreed to continue the competition including the schedule of three consecutive matches from the Boxing Day period on December 26 to January 3 next year.