No longer the battler's Cup

For so long the English FA Cup has been the symbol of romanticism in sport - the competition where the big boys are regularly brought back to earth by the game's battlers.

But the world's oldest football cup competition is under threat like never before - thanks to the total dominance of the competition over the past decade of just four clubs - Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea.

Fans in England have long ago got used to these clubs sharing the game's biggest prize - the Premier League title - between them but the FA Cup and its poorer relation the League Cup were supposed to be the competitions where some of the game's other clubs got their chance to get their hands on some silverware.

But as the 'big four' clubs of English football have got richer and richer in relation to their rivals - thanks to their continued involvement each season in the prestigious European Champions League (in which only the top four teams at the end of each season are allowed to participate in) - the depth in their squads has improved to such an extent that even in the cup competitions, where the big four often field below-strength teams, they are still too good for their rivals.

It has been 1995 since a team other than the big four lifted the FA Cup and this has increasingly begun to affect interest in the competition that once captivated the country such as when then second division clubs Sunderland and West Ham beat the might of Leeds and Arsenal in 1973 and 1980. And who can forget little Wimbledon's amazing FA Cup final victory over a Liverpool side at the peak of their powers in 1988?

But those days are fast becoming an increasingly distant memory as the big four clubs have even started helping themselves to the League Cup in recent years, with Middlesbrough's 2004 success over Bolton the only exception.

In fact that is the only trophy any other club besides the big four has lifted since 2002 and such is the dominance of the big four that English bookmakers now offer odds of which club will perform best in any competition outside of the big four.

While fans of Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool may revel in this dominance - and indeed matches between them are always epic encounters - is this dominance healthy for the sport as a whole?

Maybe the answer is in the increasing number of empty seats seen at some Premier League grounds in recent seasons - particularly Bolton, Sunderland, Blackburn, Wigan and Middlesbrough, whose support really seems to have dropped away in recent times.

But all hope is not lost yet for the other 88 clubs that make up England's four professional football divisions.

This week marks not only the fourth round of the FA Cup but also the second leg of the semi-finals of the League Cup where Tottenham and Everton - the last two clubs to lift the FA Cup outside of the big four - are considered strong chances to go on and reach the final at the expense of Arsenal and Chelsea respectively.

And on the weekend in the fourth round of the FA Cup - Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea all face tricky ties against fellow premiership teams in Newcastle, Tottenham and Wigan respectively.

Even if just one of those teams is beaten it would be considered a huge upset but would give the FA Cup the kind of boost it so badly needs and restore the competition's once greatest asset - its ability to produce upsets.

There would be no bigger upset than if the only non-league team left in the competition - Havant and Waterlooville - an amateur club who sit in the eighth tier of English football - was to upset Liverpool at Anfield.

But that is a bit much to hope for even the most romantic of football fans who would gladly settle for at least one of the big four biting the dust this weekend.

However if that doesn't happen then expect one of Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea or Liverpool to again go on and lift the FA Cup and for wider public interest in a once great competition to continue to wane.