Birmingham City manager Gianfranco Zola has lamented the ever-decreasing importance of the FA Cup.

The FA Cup is the oldest tournament in the history of football and the competition certainly used to be regarded very highly by every team across England, as well as the fans.

However, the cup has seen its prestige fall dramatically over the years as top flight teams regularly put out their second string sides, prompting Chelsea legend Zola to suggest that the historic tournament has lost its value due to the exorbitant money currently on offer in the Premier League.

Zola told talkSPORT: "Unfortunately that's the kind of money involved in the Premier League and, obviously, going up to the Premier League being a Championship team is huge.

"More often, they have squads where they have 20 or 22 very good players.

"As a manager you have to make them count and, on the one hand, you have to try and go to the Premier League – you have to think about everything. On the other hand you have 22 quality players and you have to give them a run, you have to play them, because obviously you need to keep the balance in the team.

"If you have a squad with 12-13 players that can be in the team, and you have young players that come up, when you have a lot of players that are potential first team players then you have to play them. This is the reality of the situation.

"It's very sad for the FA Cup because it is a great competition and I always say it is one of the best in the world but the reality is that the money isn't there.

"Unless they find a clever way to motivate the teams to play their best teams in this competition it will be hard."