Concur.  They are a Welsh team and can only potentially represent Wales.  It's up to the Welsh FA to decide which of their teams represent their country, and if they decide to ignore the claims of a team that has fooked off to play in another country (therefore no direct comparison with other Welsh teams to determine qualification) then so be it.  It's nowt to do with the English FA.

Keeper of the heretic's fork of doom.

i see the places belonging to the competition, not the country. and the winners of that competition should get all the same rewards as any winner.

by the way, if pompey qualify via the league and win the cup, then that would open an extra space in the league wouldnt it? not mean the runners up of the cup get into europe.

Cool Cool Coolio...

Thats not how it works. Each nation gets a number of places depending on their coefficients (how well their teams have done in Europe in recent years). It is up to the FA of any particular country to decide how those places are won. We could quite easily say the cup winners don't get a UEFA spot at all, if it pleased us. The Welsh FA have their own allocation. If Cardiff want to play in an English competition then they do so knowing full well that they would not be eligible to represent England in Europe. No point bleating about it afterwards.

In this instance the law is not an ass.

Not if the rules state that they won't prior to the competition starting, which they obviously did.

From Manchester with love

But fundamentally that's exactly what they are doing-representing a country in Europe.  If they want to represent Wales then they should speak to the FAW-they could still nominate them as their representative.  While all teams are playing for themselves they are doing that as the qualified teams for their country.

Maybe you're right that the places belong to the competition not the country, but then they should not be allowed to enter.  They are allowed by invitation from the FA as a guest team, but they knew the rules when they entered, and they play in the English league purely because it generates more revenue for them as a club-there are no ties that bind them, and as the capital city oif a country they aren't exactly being good ambassadors by playing elsewhere.  It's be the same if United and Chelsea et al went to play in a European Superleague, whatever they say the reasons may be, it would boil down to the fact that they would get more money, which is what Cardiff (and Wrexham) do. And it's the only reason that the Celtic/rangers in the premiership debate comes up.

On the other note, the runners up will not get in anyway, the place goes to the next in the league (I'm fairly sure of this), So pompey getting to the final is good for us-if we can finish 6th. Or 7th behind Pompey I think.

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The loser should get fuck all. You get nowt for making it to the semi's, so why you should you get a pat on the back for losing the final?

From Manchester with love

Not true, though.  The FA has a certain number of European places to distribute as it sees fit.  There is no rule to say that the FA Cup winners have to get a place, just because that is how the FA traditionally decide to do things.  They have the same criteria for qualification every year to try to avoid diplomatic incidents and claims over whose achievement is more 'valid' for European qualification, but they always have contingencies.  Thus the FA Cup doesn't 'own' a qualification place, that is merely how the FA usually judge eligibility.

Runners up in the FA Cup may qualify if the winners have qualified, but in the Carling Cup it goes to the league place if the winners qualify by other means.  I think. 

Keeper of the heretic's fork of doom.

I'm pretty sure that this isn't the case this season, which is the right move for the reason you outline above.

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You big Welsh lover you.

We're right though.  Seach your feelings, you know it to be true.

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