Fulham & Birmingham City combine to save Exeter City, not Man City | OneFootball

Exeter City's FA Cup draw with Manchester City is great, but it's Fulham and Birmingham City who helped save Grecians.

Tony Kellow, Sean Devine, Adam Stansfield, Scott Hiley... Peter Crouch?

Exeter City fans gained a new hero during the 2025/26 FA Cup Third Round draw when the former Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur striker Crouch pulled the Grecians' name out of the hat to set up an exciting trip to Manchester City.

Not only did the draw produce a mouth-watering day out to face one of the best teams on the planet in one of the best arenas going, it also brought some much-needed cash into the League One side's coffers.

The Devon outfit has been going through some well publicised financial issues through the second half of 2025, blamed largely on the ever-increasing money needed to compete in the third tier, a fire at St James Park and a sell-on clause being triggered in Jay Stansfield's £15m transfer from Fulham to Birmingham City in 2024.

Usually these sells ons are great news and the lifeblood of Exeter City, but they're usually in control of how they're inserted and paid as the selling club.

However, as this one was inserted by an independent tribunal when Stansfield was poached by Fulham's academy as a teenager, City had no control over the conditions. City also had no control over the terms that took Stansfield to St Andrew's.

Jay Stansfield transfer structured over 7 years

If the forward had just moved in an old-school deal where it's cash up front, it would have been happy days for the Grecians. Money in the bank.

But, in the current climate of FFP and amortisation, The Blues will pay in the region of £15m for Stansfield over seven years, with most of City's cut coming in the final 24 months.

In theory, that's good and helps for long-term planning. However, for reasons known only to highly-paid accountants, Exeter were hit with a £3m corporation tax bill that had to be paid this financial year.

How? Why? Was it down to incompetence? A mistake? Is this the way things will be from now on? So many questions still remain over the fiasco, but the club did know this was coming and publicly warned of the impact it could have on immediate finances at the time.

This, the fire, overspending, and a controversial training camp in La Manga, Spain, in 2024/25, all amounted to a perfect storm for the side who are widely thought to have a bottom-two budget in League One.

Exeter City's future was looking bleak

Alarm bells started ringing when Chief executive Joe Gorman and Trust and club chairman Nick Hawker suddenly resigned at the start of the 2025/26 season and the Supporters' Trust started pumping cash into the coffers.

Many others left their posts at club and Trust level and staff redundancies were made.

Incoming chairman Richard Pym made the stark assessment to DevonLive that: “I can’t promise anything, but I expect Exeter City to be able to complete the season."

Maybe it was complacency, maybe it was confidence in those running the club and how they've handled the finances over the last two decades, but the mere thought that there was even a possibility that the Grecians could go bust before the end of the season sent shockwaves through the fanbase.

All of this highlights why Crouch's perfect timing in pulling the No.61 ball from the bag was so important.

There are parallels that no City fan would have missed with Tony Cascarino's heroics with the No.64 ball in the 2004/05 FA Cup Third Round draw when he handed the Grecians a life-saving away day at the mighty Manchester United with the club in dire straights in the early fan-ownership days.

Crouch goes right up there with Cascarino in the cult-hero stakes, but those in charge of Fulham and Birmingham should also get plenty of credit.

While the trip to The Etihad will generate a huge amount of cash for City, a deal done with, or by, the Premier League and Championship sides to pay some of the promised Stansfield cash forward is game-changing and, potentially, life-saving. At the very least it's averted a serious crisis.

Exeter were slightly guarded in their announcement of the monies received. "We are pleased to confirm that this week we completed a banking transaction that brings forward the receipt of some deferred transfer monies," Pym said.

Some speculated that the club had taken out a loan against the future payments and this hasn't been ruled out.

Since then it's been reported that Birmingham have pre-paid some of the promised cash and that Fulham have sent it along, though official conformation on that is still lacking.

FA Cup tie has echoes of 2005

Since the draw all feels relatively rosy in Devon's capital, but it's worth remembering that this deal was done before the Manchester City tie was confirmed.

So, if, as reported, Fulham and Birmingham have got together to send what is a relative pittance for them to Exeter, then it's fantastic news, and it's something that neither was obliged in any way to do.

City's trip to Old Trafford 21 years ago generated over £1m for the club, but that was in the days of replays (0-0 at Old Trafford, no less) and the game down in Devon was televised.

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire estimated that the FA Cup third round draw would bring in 'at least' £250,000 to the Grecians but, based on the 2005 money, this will surely be a lot higher than that, though a lack of replays and the game not being on TV hampers Exeter's earning potential.

Whatever happens it's brought closure on a bumpy few months in Devon's capital. The Manchester City money will be hugely appreciated, but it's Fulham and Birmingham who have gone above and beyond to no benefit for themselves and that must be commended.