FA Cup to get anthem similar to Champions League as action taken

The Football Association are looking to keep moving with the times, with the FA Cup set for a change to keep it modern, in line with one key switch by the Champions League.

The FA Cup is a world-famous competition steeped in history and unparalleled tradition. However, England’s governing body for football – The FA – is looking at ways to keep it fresh and modern.

One of those ways appears to be the possible introduction of a competition anthem that will be played before kick-off in the competition, all the way from the early rounds to the final. That’s according to The Times, which reports that the FA Cup will follow the route of the Champions League by having it’s own music that will become synonymous with the battle for the trophy.

The report states that the FA have commissioned a company – which is part of the Universal Music group – to help create the music with a separate track for the men’s and women’s competition. The anthem would likely play as the teams lined up out of the tunnel, with the handshakes between the opposing sides taking place.

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It’s a move that could help the competition grow its own branding, beyond the historical associations that have been made surrounding it. The Champions League anthem is perhaps the greatest example of a theme portraying what the brand of a competition is.

It was written in 1992 by English composer Tony Britten, based on George Frideric Handel’s Zadok the Priest from the 1700s. The music has become iconic, being associated with prestige and class that then reflect back on the competition itself, with many players citing the goosebumps they feel when hearing the music for the first time on the pitch.

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The Premier League introduced its own anthem in the 2020/2021 season, which often provides the soundtrack to the pre-match walkout for both teams. British composer Dave Connolly put the piece together – and it has been a mainstay in the division ever since.

While it remains to be seen exactly how the FA Cup anthem will sound, it is yet more proof of the English Football Association trying to find ways to keep the competition up to date with the state of the modern game. The FA Cup is often held in high regard, due to it being the world’s oldest association football competition.

With teams able to compete from the qualifying rounds, there is a sense of it being built on the premise anyone can truly win it. The “magic” of the FA Cup has often been bandied around, due to the many cup upsets that big teams have faced over the years, bringing underdog tales into the spotlight, with Macclesfield’s win over holders Crystal Palace being this year’s headline in the men’s competition.

However, there have been growing questions around the importance of the competition in the wider football ecosystem. What was once a cup offering plenty of prize money is one that’s dwarfed for Premier League clubs, due to increased prize pots and broadcast income in both the league and European competitions.

The winners of the FA Cup bag just over £2.1m, with the runner-up landing half of that at £1.6m, but that’s reduced as the teams get knocked out earlier in the competition. As a result, the competition can be viewed as a secondary focus by some, who will rest and rotate through the early rounds.

That isn’t the attitude of all teams, though, many of which do take the challenge seriously as they get closer to the prospect of lifting the trophy at Wembley. However, it has been a growing consideration for sides when weighing up where they have to prioritise their team during a season that’s getting busier with more fixtures, not to mention and injuries piling up.

Changes have already been in place to combat that, with the FA scrapping replays in the competition to ease the possibility of more fixtures. That is something that hasn’t been popular in some sections of the football ecosystem, especially with smaller clubs that dream of earning a chance to play a big team once again.

The money on offer to those teams in the early rounds remains important to the “smaller” clubs who are looking to progress. As a result, the magic of the cup still remains real at those moments, while the FA grapple with the reality of keeping the competition relevant in an ever-changing football landscape.