This prevents a wealthy team still in the competition from gaining an unfair advantage by signing talented players from clubs that may have lost out in earlier rounds, in an attempt to increase their cup chances.
[citation needed] Similarly, cup-tying did not apply to matches in the now-defunct pre-season UEFA Intertoto Cup, up to the semi-final round.
The cup-tied rule comes in for criticism from various fans and media pundits, particularly when a high-profile player is ineligible for significant matches.
[3] In the 2008 FA Cup Final against Cardiff City, and in previous rounds, former Portsmouth player Jermain Defoe was cup-tied and was unable to play.
In 2006, Robbie Fowler was cup-tied for the victorious Liverpool team after his mid-season return to Anfield from Manchester City.
In January 1991, defender Viv Anderson was sold to Sheffield Wednesday by Manchester United, and three months later the two teams met in the League Cup final.
Sheffield Wednesday won the game, but Anderson had been unable to play, for he had appeared - and scored - in a second-round tie for Manchester United six months earlier.
Andrei Arshavin was cup-tied in the Champions League after moving to Arsenal during the January 2009 transfer window, having earlier represented Zenit St. Petersburg in the group stage of that competition.
In the 1999–2000 Football League Cup, West Ham United were ordered to replay a match they had won against Aston Villa, after bringing on as a substitute Emmanuel Omoyinmi, who had appeared for Gillingham in an earlier round.
However, they were granted an exemption and allowed to play because the club had suffered the Munich air disaster earlier that season.
[5][6] Another case came in 2009, when Real Madrid purchased Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Lassana Diarra – both of whom had already played European football during the season for Ajax and Portsmouth, respectively – during the winter transfer window.
This can be used to manipulate their value on the transfer market for the remainder of the season, because it affects whether any potential new club can field them in the cup.
In 2004–05, Liverpool's Michael Owen sat out of his club's Champions League games so that other top European teams would be able to sign him; he subsequently transferred to Real Madrid.