Former captain Roy Keane says he is ‘pretty ashamed’ of Manchester United’s decision to withdraw from the FA Cup in 2000.
United accepted the Football Association’s offer to miss the competition in order to play in the inaugural World Team Championship, now known as the Club World Cup.
Manchester United were due to defend the FA Cup trophy but the FA believed the club’s participation in the World Test Championship would aid England’s 2006 World Cup bid.
As a result United became the first and only FA Cup winners not to defend their title in 2000, with Chelsea going on to win the competition, beating Aston Villa in the final.
Manchester United’s decision, made during Sir Alex Ferguson’s long and celebrated reign as manager, attracted widespread criticism from supporters and the media for devaluing the oldest football competition in the world.
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Former Old Trafford chairman Martin Edwards said at the time that the club had ‘no alternative’ but to accept the FA’s offer and made the decision ‘in the national interest’.
Manchester United only won one of their three games in the eight-team Club World Championship in Brazil, finishing third in Group B behind Mexican side Necaxa and eventual runners-up Vasco da Gama.
Keane, who was United captain at the time, believes the club should be ‘pretty ashamed’ of their decision to pull out of the FA Cup.
‘I think one thing that was definitely better back in the day was the FA Cup,’ former Manchester United defender Gary Neville said on The Stick to Football podcast. ‘That was magic when we were playing.’
Keane, a four-time FA Cup winner, then said: ‘I think the magic has come back a bit the last few years now.
‘When you think of it when we were at United, we should be pretty ashamed because we pulled out of the FA Cup.
‘I know it wasn’t down to us but we accepted it as players. How mad was that, your team pulling out of the FA Cup.’
Confirming Manchester United’s withdrawal from the FA Cup, former chairman Edwards said in June 1999: ‘We realise that many of our supporters will be as disappointed as we are with our decision not to compete in the FA Cup.
‘Manchester United see this as an opportunity to compete for the ultimate honour of being the very first world club champions.’
Ferguson added: ‘We can’t go for them all. We can’t play in the FA Cup and in Brazil. That would be impossible.
‘We’re in a no-win situation here. The criticism we would have received if we hadn’t gone [to Brazil] would have been unthinkable – and that’s a Scotsman speaking.’
Speaking a decade after United’s controversial decision, Ferguson admitted he still ‘regretted’ the circumstances which led to the club’s FA Cup withdrawal.
‘It turned out to be a disaster for us,’ Ferguson told Inside United. ‘We did it to help England’s World Cup bid. That was the political situation.
‘I regretted it because we got nothing but stick and terrible criticism for not being in the FA Cup when really, it wasn’t our fault.
‘The FA and the government felt that playing in this tournament would help England’s bid to host the 2006 World Cup. There was a lot of undue criticism – but it was a great two-week break.’
Manchester United have won the FA Cup twice since Ferguson’s retirement in 2013, first under Louis van Gaal and most recently under Erik ten Hag.
The current Red Devils team, managed by under-fire Ruben Amorim, will discover their FA Cup first-round opponents on Monday evening when the draw is made.
United reached the fifth round of the FA Cup last season before losing to Fulham on penalties at Old Trafford.
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