Should Junior Cup Quarter-Finalists be allowed into the FAI Cup?

[BoyInGreen]

I think they should. My reasoning is as follows.

In the round where the Airtricity clubs enter the Cup, there are 32 berths. Traditionally, when there were 22 clubs, the present allocation of 16 intermediate and 4 junior clubs worked well as there were no byes. However, following the reduction in the league to 20, there are now 12 berths open to amateur clubs. To avoid byes, there would need to be 24 clubs in Round 1, four more than present. If more intermediate clubs were added, there would have to be a cumbersome playoff involving the last 32 losers in the fai intermediate cup, which could be avoided if the junior quarter-finalists were added. It would also bring the following benefits:

Would help improve the standard of junior soccer in Ireland.
More clubs get a big cup tie and the associated income that goes with it.

The only opposition I could envisage would be from the intermediates as they would now have to face a junior club where previously they would have a bye.

So what do other people think?

[JC_GUFC]

That makes perfect sense so not likely to happen!

The other option would be to scrap the first round and for 12 non-league clubs to go straight in with the Airtricity League clubs. The 8 IC quarter finalists and the 4 JC semi finalists.

While typing this I''ve thought of one problem. Shamrock Rovers B aren't allowed enter. So it's actually 13 non-league clubs needed.

They might do one of the above and have one "Lucky Loser".

Hard to figure out how to get the number to 13 otherwise.