Arsene Wenger leads Arsenal into the FA Cup final tomorrow advocating that it should become a midweek competition.
The Arsenal boss feels the fixture list is so congested that FA Cup ties should be played on Wednesdays rather than on Saturdays.
Wenger is delighted that his team can look forward to tomorrow's final showdown with Liverpool.
But he said that his Gunners had to sacrifice Premiership points to get there.
"The big problem we have in England is that if you go for the FA Cup, like we did and Liverpool did, you have automatically a problem in thechampionship - especially if you also play in the Champions League, like we did," said Wenger.
"Certain weekends are FA Cup weekends, then you have to play your Champions League matches, plus your rearranged league matches.
"For example, we played Manchester City between our two games against Valencia. We had to play them in midweek because we'd played in theFA Cup on the weekend we were due to play them.
"It gives you a problem and you have to sacrifice something. You need to find a solution, so maybe you should play all FA Cup ties midweek andkeep the championship games on the weekend.
"But that will never happen because the FA Cup is too prestigious."
Wenger mused: "I would advocate playing all FA Cup ties on a Wednesday.
"The supporters may object, but if you have 20 teams in the league, plus FA Cup replays, plus the Champions League, there are always moregames - and somewhere you have to pay the price.
"Don't get me wrong, I don't think the competition is not good; I think I have shown that it is an important competition for me because I havesacrificed points at some point in the championship because of the FA Cup. I am not proud of that, and we won't neglect the FA Cup next year.
"But you have to accept that, because we have these postponed games, you might drop points in the league as a result of going for the FA Cup.You have to cope with that, because of the way the competition is structured.
"There are some good brains who organise it but unfortunately nobody has found an ideal solution."
Wenger's views may be controversial, but he believes he is simply being realistic. In a frank assessment of the game today, he branded the UEFACup a "second division" European competition.
He also said despite calls for the size of the Champions League to be reduced, it will never happen because that would bankrupt clubs like Arsenal.
"Everybody dreams of reducing the Champions League, but nobody will go for that because it will mean less money, and with the wages we paywe cannot take a drop in income," said Wenger.
"It cannot happen unless we go bankrupt.
"Also, they have a problem with the UEFA Cup - everybody knows that. If you look at the television rights, nobody wants to buy the UEFA Cup.
"We made money last season because we are a big club and people are interested in watching us, but in other countries they struggled to sell theUEFA Cup."
With Liverpool set to meet Alaves in the UEFA Cup final next Wednesday, Wenger added: "When you play in the UEFA Cup final you don't feel thatyou play in the top league.
"To lose a Champions League final is very hard, but we played the UEFA Cup final last year not with the feeling that if we win it we have done thebusiness.
"But the FA Cup is different. When you play in the UEFA Cup final you feel that you are playing in the second division of the European league - ithas lost its prestige. But the FA Cup final, everybody fights for it.
"It may be different for Liverpool because they went into this season's UEFA Cup from the start, whereas we went into it last season after beingknocked out of the Champions League, and everybody said 'what are you doing here, it's not normal'.
"When we reached the final it was just a consolation, but when you enter the FA Cup you know you have a long way to go to reach the final."
Wenger is naturally looking forward to tomorrow's final and wants to end the season on a high by claiming a trophy.
He added: "After beating Leeds last weekend to secure our place in the Champions League it would be great to finish off the season by lifting theFA Cup, especially as we have under-achieved at times this season and not been more of a threat to Manchester United in the league.
"I believe we are in a situation at Arsenal that if we don't win everything then people will say we have under-achieved, but that is a complimentto the club.
"Even if people have had mixed feelings about my team this year, I still feel historically it can be a big season."
PA