The French cup and it's unique aspect

Coupe de France
source: getfrenchfootballnews.com

The seventh round of the French cup takes place this weekend and as as usual it has it's unique aspect in full flow. This round of the French cup not only features sides as far down as the ninth tier of the football league system but offers a unique aspect in including sides from the various dependencies that make up France's "L'outre mer". The domestic cup winners of New Caledonia and Tahiti being joined by sides from Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion and Saint Martin.

The inclusion of these sides does obviously open up some quite eye boggling travel distances. To combat this the French football association (FFA) offers mainland sides the chance to apply to be eligible to face the overseas teams. To break it down, the sides that express interest in travelling are then put into the section of the seventh round where they can be drawn against any of the overseas teams. The make-up of the travel budget for the overseas teams remains unclear but I'd be amazed if there isn't some sort of grant from the FFA, their local leagues and football associations to travel the vast distances. Likewise for the mainland teams open to travelling.

The French overseas territories
source: meteofrance.fr

The draw for the seventh round is made in two parts with the overseas section made first. As mentioned in the previous paragraph it's pitting sides who have applied to travel for their cup games with the overseas sides and of course which overseas teams make the journey to the mainland. The main part of the seventh round draw being made the following day.

The overseas section of the draw threw up the following:

• CS Moulin (Guadeloupe) vs FC Fleury 91
• AS Magenta (New Caledonia) vs Pau FC
• Club Franciscain (Martinique) vs FC Lunéville
• ASC Le Geldar (French Guiana) vs SC Selongey
• JS Saint-Pierroise (Réunion) vs Sainte-Geneviéve Sports 
• Avoine OCC vs AS Excelsior (Réunion)
• Rodez vs FC Mtsapéré (Mayotte)
• ASM Belfort vs Phare du Canal (Guadeloupe)
• US Avranches vs AS Dragon (Tahiti)
• FC Mulhouse v US Matoury (French Guiana)
• Tarbes v Golden Lion FC (Martinique)

Last season all the overseas sides were eliminated by the time the competition reached the last 32 with Réunion side US Saint-Marienne bowing out to Gazélec Ajaccio, who were in Ligue 1 at the time. No overseas team has ever won the French cup nor has any progressed beyond the last 64. Of the overseas teams only five in the history of the French cup have progressed two ties in the same season. So reaching the last 32 remains as the glass ceiling yet to be breached. Could it happen this season? well history suggests no but given that we are talking about 2016 I guess we can't completely rule out a strong performance from the overseas teams. The Ligue 1 teams don't typically enter the cup until the ninth round (or last 64) so the opportunity of getting a plum tie against the big names of PSG, Marseille, Lyon or Saint-Étienne isn't entirely out of the question. 

A popular question that might rise from this is the hypothetical situation of an overseas team winning the French cup, do they get to play in the Europa League?. The answer to this is unfortunately no. Given that some of these overseas teams come from FIFA members it renders them ineligible for European competition. Some of the sides such as the Réunion representatives have taken part in the African champions league while the Tahitians and New Caledonians are regularly involved in the Oceania champions league. To enter European competition a team to my knowledge has to be affiliated with a UEFA nation and competing in the structure within that said nation, none of the other overseas teams are competing in the French league system. 

What makes this aspect more interesting is that the likes of Réunion, New Caledonia and Tahiti are FIFA members. So this could happen with say the Dutch cup including sides from say Aruba and Curacao or even the likes of England, Spain and Portugal going down a similar road.
It's safe to say that while the FA cup in England remains the oldest cup competition in the world, the French cup is surely the biggest. From researching this blog post a figure of the amount of teams that took part one season was north of seven thousand. A quite incredible figured given that the FA cup most years hovers in and around the eight hundred mark.

SO for the weekend that's in it, Bon chance to the overseas teams and hopefully one at least breaks new ground in getting through to the last 32.