FA Cup weekends have gone the way of international breaks: Largely irrelevant

• Despite top English clubs competing in the FA Cup Third Round, fans of most clubs have ‘checked out’ on watching their favorite club — both in person and on television.

• Clubs laser-focused on league place in Premier League and impact of UEFA Champions League have pushed FA Cup way down the list of priorities.

• Fans’ obsession with Premier League and Champions League have marginalized international breaks, FA Cup and other lesser important competitions.

Ten years ago this weekend, Leeds United defeated Manchester United at Old Trafford. Jermaine Beckford’s winning goal was celebrated through football fandom around the globe. Once great title rivals of Manchester United, Leeds had fallen on hard times and plummeted all the way to League One. The match was highly anticipated and the result sent reverberations across the soccer world.

Beckford’s goal and Leeds victory was seen at the time as a celebration of football. But in this day and age “cupsets,” they often exist in a vacuum and are viewed by fans of bigger clubs as a blip on the radar, or even perhaps an opportunity to refocus on what really matters — the Premier League and the Champions League. Television’s role in this shift in priorities is unmistakable.

The FA Cup Third Round weekend was long considered the greatest weekend in English football. Plucky underdogs that had advanced to this point in the competition got the chance to knock-off Premier League and Championship sides – the very giant killings that previously made the football world go-round. The FA Cup has lost its luster as a television property. Timing, football fatigue and the seriousness with which clubs take the competition all factor into this decline.

This weekend’s FA Cup Third Round has, for many TV viewers around the world, become a weekend off from football, a time to catch up on other things after the intense festive period and 39 Premier League matches in 13 days. Broadcasters and media companies that show the Premier League often do not have FA Cup rights or do not promote them with the same vigor.

SEE MORE: Schedule of FA Cup games on US TV and streaming

For the top clubs, selling tickets has become difficult for cup ties as the matches lack appeal, and few clubs in the top two flights of English football put out full-strength sides. In the UK, the FA Cup does have matches on free-to-air television unlike the Premier League, but more often than not those matches aren’t attractive or don’t feature anything similar to the full strength sides on display week-in and week-out in the league.

For every club in the Premier League and the Championship, save a few, the FA Cup Third Round comes at the wrong time on the calendar and provides a chance to rotate the squad and experiment rather than emphasize results. The FA’s inability to generate the sort of TV revenue through the competition that is meaningful for bigger clubs means an emphasis on qualifying for Europe, staying in the Premier League or being promoted to the Premier League — all of which drives the priorities of clubs. This in turn drives coaching decisions and the emphasis of fans. Many fans and casuals have understood these priorities, and year-after-year shift further toward emphasis on the league and Europe.

Make no mistake about it, the shifting priorities for clubs has everything to do with television money and attracting viewers and fans from across the globe. Success in the Premier League and European competitions drive television interest and revenue while FA Cup or Carabao Cup failures make little difference in the overall profile of a club in this era. In many cases, fans and even those connected with the club quickly forget cup failures and move on to the more important business at hand, the league and for the very top clubs, Europe. Additionally, the FA Cup impact for each club from television revenue is minimal and cup success does little to attract new fans who are attracted to the English game based on television. The days of waxing lyrically about FA Cup Finals and their relevance for the biggest clubs in England ended probably around the time of the 2007 final between Chelsea and Manchester United. Since then, even when big clubs face off with each other in FA Cup semifinals and finals, the matches seem secondary to any league clashes between the same clubs even if silverware is not on the line.

In today’s atmosphere, the two great television properties of England’s Premier League and the UEFA Champions League dictate viewing habits and interests. Much like International breaks outside the major summer tournaments, the FA Cup Third Round weekend has become a time many tune out.

Romanticism remains a big part of football’s lore — the idea of giant killings drive narratives in the media and among older school soccer fans. However, in this era few fans are going out of their way to watch a giant killing on TV or streaming video live. If an upset along the lines of the Leeds win over Manchester United occurs, it becomes a temporary talking point or Twitter meme, before more important business resumes.

Fans who watch the sport regularly see FA Cup weekends in the same way as many view international breaks. The core, die-hard football fan, the romantic and the media stay engaged but the more casual fans, driven by television or by the more prestigious competitions, by and large, tune out.

The FA Cup still holds a lore for many fans, but in today’s age of Premier League domination of television, fixture congestion and global fans, its importance has faded. The relevance the cup has for fans had faded accordingly, and the biggest driver of this is television.