Last weekend I sat home in agony with no football to watch unless I wanted to watch Commercial League football.

With the new administration coming on board, one of their first mandates must have been to change the structure of the FA Cup. Instead of having Commercial League, First Division and Premier Division names all in the same hat, as it has been in recent years, the first round pool was made up of only Commercial teams.

As we move forward to the second round, the pool increases to include both Commercial and First Division teams. Only after these rounds are complete will the Premier Division teams enter the FA Cup competition.

It appears that the result desired from the BFA (Bermuda Football Association) is to have an all-Premier Division final, but isn't that why the Friendship Trophy takes place?

What makes the FA Cup unique is that the opportunity arises for an underdog to do the unthinkable of making it to the quarter-finals by merely the luck of the draw or even by pulling off a win against a team that is not even in their league.

Is the motivation behind this financial? Is it a ploy by the BFA to almost guarantee an all-Premier Division final. Inquiring minds want to know?

This system simply reduces the chances of a surprise team advancing to the semi-finals or final. If I remember correctly, one of the goals of the BFA was to ensure that lower division teams would advance further into the FA Cup. I would like to poll each club to see how they feel about the FA Cup change, because I know that some of the Commercial Division clubs relish the opportunity to knock heads with the big boys. Has the sting been taken out of the competition?

One only has to look at Hamilton Parish (who prior to this season were a First Division team) in recent FA Cups to see what the old format meant to them. I recall Hamilton Parish reaching the semi-finals one year then the following year reaching the final.

The likelihood of a wonder team reaching that far has now been taken away due to the fact that they are almost guaranteed to play a Premier Division team well before that stage.

In St.George's, for example, I know that St.George's All-Stars (Commercial Division) used to hope to be drawn against their brother team St.George's (First Division) to create a local parish derby.

The same could probably be said for Somerset and Somerset Extros. These games particularly brought communities together, but again under the new system, chances are slim for that to happen.

If memory serves me well, didn't the Premier Division teams just have a bye weekend when they didn't play any football?

Now they have this weekend off and will have another weekend off when the Commercial and Second Division teams play on November 16.

Besides the fact that the Premier teams do not enter the draw until January 25, the scheduling causes a three-week break before the Premier teams get back into action.

Let's draw comparisons to that of the English Football League. They have a preliminary round where the non-leaguers play the lower division teams, but that's only due to the huge number of teams in each league. How could we possibly forget last year's wonder team, Barnsley? They savoured the FA draw when fitted against Liverpool and surprisingly stunned the Premier team.

If that wasn't enough, Barnsley then went on to stun powerhouse Chelsea before losing to Cardiff in the semi-finals. So the question is, who is benefiting here – the fans, the teams, or the BFA? Or is it now a no-win situation, and just another Cup?

Premier teams now only have to play three games to get to the final whereas Commercial teams have to play five.

Will the uncertainty and the unthinkable still remain characteristical of the FA Cup? The likelihood of one of the Commercial teams or First Division teams reaching the semi-finals has been reduced. There is one team that I personally think can pull off a few upsets – Somerset Eagles are good enough to beat several of the Premier Division teams on their day.

It was merely two years ago in the FA Cup final when Devonshire Colts made history by being the only First Division team ever to win the Cup by beating Boulevard 2-0.

So, I say to all Commercial and First Division teams don't let this new format reduce your drive to strive to make it to the powerhouse stage. Keep on, because we as fans love to see that determination.

It is what it is, and the FA Cup will go on as scheduled.

My picks to reach the final of the FA Cup assuming they can avoid each other in the draw would be Devonshire Cougars and Dandy Town.

One little message to the BFA – the last administration did a reasonable job. As the old timers used to say – if it isn't broken, don't fix it!