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