Sky Sports legend Jeff Stelling slams FA Cup third-round draw and suggests shock new format for oldest competition

JEFF STELLING has slammed the FA Cup third-round draw and suggested a new format for the competition.

The Sky Sports legend was unimpressed after Sunday’s draw for the next round.

talkSPORT

Jeff Stelling has slammed the FA Cup third-round draw[/caption]

AP

The third-round draw took place on Sunday, with Arsenal vs Liverpool amongst the ties drawn[/caption]

Arsenal vs Liverpool and Sunderland vs Newcastle were the picks of the ties drawn.

However, Stelling is far from intrigued by the prospect of another all-Premier League clash.

He told talkSPORT. “I’m not interested in Arsenal against Liverpool in the FA Cup, I see it in the Premier League, not interested at all.

“What worries me is some of the smaller teams who get through to this stage. You look at Eastleigh and Maidstone, they played five games to get to this stage and they are looking for a bumper payday.

“And what happens? They get a rotten draw. No chance of TV coverage by the way, no chance of a big payday.

“What they need to do is seed the third-round draw of the FA Cup. For goodness sake, it is not too difficult.”

Sixth-tier Maidstone are into the round three for the first time since 1988 and will host either Stevenage or Port Vale in January.

Meanwhile, Eastleigh have been rewarded for their dramatic win over Reading with a trip to the winner of Newport and Barnet’s replay.

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Eastleigh will face either Newport or Barnet after beating Reading[/caption]

talkSPORT

Stelling has proposed a new format which will benefit lower league sides[/caption]

Stelling is keen for lower league sides to get big draws in the FA Cup and has proposed a new format for the draw.

He continued: “We have got 20 teams who qualify. They’ve come through round one and round two and all the qualifying rounds before that.

“You pick them out of the bag, home or away, and then you put the rest of the teams from the Premier League and Championship, all 44 of them, and you pick out 20 of those teams and they will play the lower league sides.

“So every lower league team gets a bumper payday in the third round, they might get TV as well.

“And there’s 24 teams left over from the Premier League and Championship. You can still get Arsenal against Liverpool if that’s what you really want.

“But what you really want is for lower league and non-league sides to have their moment in the sun, to have their big pay-day. Because at the end of the day, the big clubs are only there because of the grassroots clubs.”