THE POOR FA Cup, I bet it can’t believe what a bad press it gets nowadays.

If the actual trophy had ears – and if it does, they are huge – it would cry large metallic tears as all and sundry queue up to deride its worthlessness.

Cardiff fans don’t care about the FA Cup, only about 4000 of them went to a ground crammed to the rafters for Premier League matches last term and a host of clubs, from Hull to Southampton encompassing all divisions in between, decided it wasn’t worthy of fielding a full strength team.

And that isn’t even taking into account the biggest critic of all, us, the armchair experts with our social media accounts and our online outrage.

This week, we have mostly been complaining about TV schedules.

How dare the BBC put this game on at this time and how dare the satellite channel have any games at all. Why are the games being spread out so much?

And that’s not to mention the poor selections. How dare the BBC show Arsenal v Hull when Blyth v Birmingham was clearly a much better contest?

It’s all grossly unfair to a competition that remains – and it must be stressed, with very little competition from abroad – the biggest domestic cup in world football.

No nation takes its own cup more seriously and no cup enjoys the same worldwide viewing figures as the FA Cup and most of the grumbles about it are unfair bluster.

If clubs are fielding under strength starting XI’s it’s more a reflection on the insane Christmas schedule – which I wouldn’t change by the way – and if attendances are low that’s because clubs continue to charge far too much money to watch 22 blokes kicking a ball around and season ticket holders have had enough. FA Cup games should be thrown into the package. No more empty seats in a stroke.

As for the TV issue, blame it on the casual fan in 2015.

No passionate lover of the game would rather watch an all-Premier League clash than a non-league fairytale run, but almost every casual fan wants to see an Alexis Sanchez not a Robbie Dale and the BBC are answerable to their license fee payers.

It’s sad that big clubs equal bigger ratings, but it’s also an economic reality.

But that doesn’t mean the FA Cup isn’t still something for us all to cherish, because it absolutely is.