Cardiff City are to play Barnsley in the FA Cup semi finals.

Barnsley’s amazing feat in knocking out Liverpool and Chelsea will make them formidable opponents. But the Bluebirds must fancy their chances, having totally outplayed Middlesbrough. And as I said in my weekend post, it would be good to succeed where two of English football’s big four failed! We shall see.

If Cardiff do repeat the triumph of 1927, they won’t get to play in Europe. (The FA Cup winners usually enter the UEFA cup.) As a club from outside England, they can’t represent England in European competitions. That seems fair enough; back in the Seventies and Eighties on several occasions Cardiff played in Europe as runners up in the Welsh Cup because that competition had been won by an English club, who similarly could not represent Wales.

Since 1995, UEFA rules mean only teams competing in the amateur Welsh league can enter the Welsh Cup, which means that Cardiff are effectively a club without a country. As I wrote in October 2006, the Welsh FA had asked UEFA to reconsider but the request seems to have failed.