I've just been researching the possibility of getting back to the UK for the Villarreal home leg and the Chelsea Semi Final the following weekend. It looks like it's possible and have fingers crossed that I (or, in this case, my friend Ian) is successful in getting tickets from the club and am hoping the credit crunch will put enough STHs off! I remember when I first got a Season Ticket it was all about having a guaranteed chance of tickets for Cup Finals - not anymore. I can't believe we only get 32,000 seats for the semi, since it holds 90,000!

The other thing about the FA Cup Semi-Finals is the ridiculous arrangement of them. Arsenal and Chelsea fans get all day on a Saturday to drink before a 5.15pm KO, sure the police are happy with that. Meanwhile half of Liverpool, 1/10 of Manchester (and the rest from Essex and the Home Counties) have to travel on a Sunday for the game!!! It doesn't make any sense at all and whilst it's fine for us there doesn't seem to have been much of a fuss kicked up about it. Football fans are so used to TV dictating the schedule that we would probably turn up for a Tuesday morning game at 05.00AM if it suited Shanghai TV or whoever!

For some strange reason the Europeans still have a fascination for the grand old FA Cup despite the FA, the clubs and Setanta/ITV making a determined effort to make it really crap. So over here in Switzerland I can get highlights on French TV and DSF (the German Sports channel) shows many of the live games over the weekend. Tomorrow I get to see Arsenal/Cardiff and the Mersey derby - even though it will be delayed as I'm out all day - hopefully skiing.

Whether I'll be getting a good surprise on my return is a little bit undecided as Cardiff are in good form and this side of ours is completely unreliable when thinking of games such as these. Hopefully Van Persie and co will be "up for it" as they say and the hostile atmosphere will be nullified early on by slick passing, a couple of goals and we'll all be happy*.

* - finger crossed, living in a dream world etc...

For some strange reason the weather over here has done a complete about turn and seems to have decided it's FA Cup weekend in this country. We have gales, lashing rain and dark, dark clouds across the sky. Since only yesterday I was sliding all over the road and pavements on my way to the station it's come as a bit of a shock. Someone should have told the weather gods that there isn't any football going on in Switzerland at the moment(it has a break until February).

The weather could be interpreted as a dark vision of the football future that is descending upon us as managers and chairman get madder and madder in an attempt to avoid relegation/win leagues or promotion/buy a shiny new player to parade in front of the press. However, today there haven't been any signings as mad as £14M for Bellamy although anyone taking Mido on loan will need to ensure the benches have been strengthened to cope with his rather "large" frame. I know he doesn't score goals but Heskey to Villa seems sensible business (as does Bullard to Hull) relative to some of the stupidity going on.

Little on Arsenal today as we prepare for a tricky trip to Cardiff at the weekend but since the cup now takes place over 3 (or is it 4 like the 3rd round) days and the draw is held before the final game it's all a bit crap really, not quite so magical

Being on the Swiss/French border for some much needed skiing I stumbled across a plethora of French Cup games on Eurosport over the whole weekend. It seems that the French TV crews were in the same sort of mood as many English commentators are when the "minnows" take on the "giants". However the French FA have three rather interesting approaches to these games that differ from the FA Cup. I'm not saying we should just change for the sake of change but just thought you'd like the opportunity to think them through for yourself.

When a lower league team draws a higher ranked  club the smaller club automatically gets home advantage for the tie (though certainly not if you are in the same division). Thus you got the wonderful scenes of giants such as PSG and Marseille going to very tiny grounds in the outlying regions of France. The games are then played to a finish (i.e. extra time and penalties - as Marseilles needed to beat the mighty Besancon!) so that advantage remains for the whole tie.

The other thing I noticed (especially when compared with the postponement of the Histon game where the pitch looked perfectly playable) was that the games seemed to be played unless the pitch was under five foot of snow or an ice rink. Watching the stars of PSG skate around on a very slippery surface was quite fun and I wonder if many of the Premier League players would fancy any game in these type of conditions.

At the end of it all, though, the Ligue 1/2 sides generally triumphed albeit by small margins and with many a struggle. The set up doesn't guarantee shocks as the better players should still be able to get through these games but it did seem to engender massive excitement for small town clubs plus a fair bit of TV money for these sides.

Would I want them in the FA Cup - maybe / maybe not - I do like the idea of home advantage to the smaller side, not sure of getting rid of a replay and I wish games were played unless absolutely impossible to play...

Any thoughts...

It's late, I've been skiing for three days (with the drinking and eating) and have just got back from the slopes so this will be quick..

Whilst away I saw the scores, got the texts and saw a brief glimpse of a Robin Van Persie goal (courtesy of France 2 TV - apparently the Plymouth goalie was French!). Tomorrow once I've come back down to earth I'll explore the FA Cup and what it could learn (or maybe not) from the French Cup (which I saw lots of over the weekend!).

Cheers