The growing importance of televised Premier League matches at weekends is set to signal the end of FA Cup replays from the third round.
The PL, whose summer meeting was dominated by discussion of televised football, primarily see themselves as a weekend competition and are looking at ways they can engineer one or two new slots for football on Saturdays and Sundays when their rights have the most value.
Friday nights have not proved a success, and Monday nights are no good for the top clubs involved in European competition.
The FA’s big ambition is for a winter break to help the tournament fortunes of the national team; to make that happen their main bargaining chip with the Premier League is to give up some FA Cup weekends.