Has the FA Cup lost its magic?

The term 'the magic of the cup' has always been associated with the FA Cup, but over the past decade or so, has the magic been starting to wear off? 

There is no doubt the FA Cup still holds a special place in the hearts of football fans, not only in England, but around the world. It still remains the most exciting and entertaining domestic competition on the planet, or so we are continuously reminded by pundits on television every time a game is broadcasted.

However one of the main reasons for the FA cup losing its 'magic' in recent years, in my view, is the venue for the semi-finals. Historically, the semi's have been held at Villa Park and Old Trafford (at least when I was younger), meaning the show piece event was always the final at the magnificent Wembley Stadium. In recent years, the semi finals have been held at Wembley, meaning the prize of playing at the home of football came before teams even managed to reach the final. This makes the wonder and excitement for the finalists playing at Wembley become almost fruitless and less meaningful.

As well as the venues for the semi finals, the television coverage of FA Cup football is, to be brutally honest, dreadful. The coverage by ITV and ESPN isn't the issue however. If you see the kind of coverage the Premier League gets every week, you start to understand why the FA Cup is now well and truly behind. The amount of cameras in every Premier League ground on match day is astounding, compared to only one, most of the time, during FA Cup matches.
Clearly some of the smaller grounds involved on FA Cup weekends may not be able to accommodate a lot of cameras, however, even the bigger grounds in the Championship and Premier League do not (unless live on TV) have more than one camera. It's as if coverage of football has gone back 20 years on FA Cup weekends.

Finally, the most crucial reason for the recent demise of the FA Cup is the prize at the end of it. I don't mean the iconic and magnificent trophy you receive in the Royal Box after either.
For winning the FA Cup or even just getting to the final, you achieve qualification for the Europa League. I have a lot of time for the Europa League and believe English teams do not take it seriously enough, the Spanish hold it in a very high regard for example.
However, with the Europa League being the 'ultimate' prize for winning the FA Cup, this puts the competition on a par with the Capital One Cup (League Cup) as the winners of that also gain Europa League qualification for next season. Again I have a lot of time for the League Cup, but there is no doubt that the FA Cup has always and should always remain the premier cup competition in the country. And with the enthralling season the League Cup has had this year, this puts the FA Cup further in the shadows.

The FA have to find a way of keeping the FA Cup the most prestigious club competition in the world, however, I believe in order to do this, it will take cooperation between them and the Premier League. This is because in my opinion, that the coveted 'fourth place' in Premier League, leading to Champions League qualification, should be scrapped. This then means that the winners of the FA Cup subsequently gain qualification for Europe's premier club competition, with the runner up still gaining Europa League qualification. This, of course, could cause problems as, what if a team in the top 3 in the Premier League wins the FA Cup, as they already have Champions League qualification? Well the solution is easy, fourth place in the Premier League gains that final qualification place.

There is no doubt winning the FA Cup will always be special, but giving clubs the opportunity to play in the Champions League as well as lift that famous old trophy would give the competition a much needed revamp and bring the 'magic of the cup' back.