The League Cup arguably has spiralled low in terms of priority for most clubs in the football but what if it was rebooted to the extent that Scottish clubs were included in a tournament in a sort of British League Cup.
Existing Format
The current league cup is open to the 92 members of the Premier League and English Football League.
Usually, teams involved in European competitions don’t participate until the third round, the rest of the Premier League teams enter the second round and the rest of the Football League enter at the first round.
Finalists would compete at the would compete at Wembley Stadium and the winners would determine which club would compete at the following season’s UEFA Europa Conference League.
The trophy has gone through multiple sponsorships and therefore had multiple different names over the years, notable names include: Milk Cup, Coca-Cola Cup, Worthington Cup, Carling Cup, Capital One Cup, EFL Cup and as of recently known as the Carabao Cup.
The Scottish League Cup has 44 participants. A little more complex format as 38 clubs not competing in UEFA competitions plus 2 additional teams outside the league compete in a group phase format.
Eight groups in total, where the top eight and four best runners up join the four teams who do compete in UEFA competition in a knockout phase. The finalists usually compete at Hampden Park, with the additional incentive of £300,000.
The Scottish League Cup winner hasn’t got the privilege of gaining a European place as Scottish clubs are only given a restricted number of places in European competitions.
Why the Change to a British League Cup?
The League Cup has a simple format and presents an excellent opportunity for the winners to lift £100,000 prize money.
Now it has seen as lower prestige than the respective leagues or the FA Cup. The prize money is significantly lower than the £2 million prize money offered by the FA Cup or the Premier League TV money awarded on final league standing and miniscule to the funds received by competing in Europe.
As a result, you often see clubs field weakened or much younger average starting XIs.
Straight away you see the benefits that academy players are given a chance to integrate themselves into the first team set up regularly.
Many of the Premier League teams would often use this competition as a way in which to give young players valuable experience at senior level.
This in turn does open up opportunities for giant-killings of these Premier League sides. The attitude towards this competition may be behind the decline of the competition on the list of most club’s priorities.
So, what if the current structure was reconstructed to provide an opportunity for a larger pot prize and opportunity for the victors to hold bragging rights over teams in more than one country?
“Champions of Britain, you’ll never sing that !!!”
Examining both pyramids there are a few options this British League Cup could take form replacing the slot of the current place held by both the Carabao Cup and Premier Sports Cup.
Option 1: 1st and 2nd Division sides only
The 12 teams in the Scottish Premiership and 10 teams in the Scottish Championship make up 22 teams in total. In addition to, the 20 Premier League sides plus 24 make up 44 teams in total for English sides.
There are 66 teams involved in this version of the British League Cup. Now those that have done the maths early on would realise it isn’t possible for everyone to start simultaneously with 66 teams.
So, there would be two preliminary rounds prior to the Round of 64. The 4 teams in this preliminary round of proceedings are selected based on:
- 1 side from each division with the worst disciplinary records from the previous campaign.
- 1 side with the worst point per game ratio in each division from the previous campaign.
- 1 side recently promoted sides from each division.
The two preliminary stages would be played out and a single knockout tie from the round of 64 up until the semi-final stage.
The semi-final has two legs to be played home and away for each of the respective clubs. The final is then to be played at Hampden Park or Wembley Stadium, the venue can alternate from year to year.
The proceeds and prize money circulated across 4 divisions still but there is a shared collective audience across two nations. There is greater exposure for both football pyramids and an opportunity for money to flow between both pyramids.
The immediate downside is this could be seen by many as snobbish or elitist. The League Cup should be very much inclusive to all members of each Football League.
Option 2: Merger of both League Cup participants
This option is the most obvious option if this theory was to be put into practice. This option would include every team in each country’s football league pyramid so 136 teams would compete for the trophy.
Of course, the size could be awkward to implement. The option would have to include 8 preliminary qualification matches in order to reduce the number to 128, a perfect size for all teams to begin their cup run.
Again, the teams that have to qualify can be based on a variety of factors. Ideally, the lower league sides would have to qualify for the immediate knockout phase.
A potential problem here could be broadcasting schedule. The number of matches would mean multiple broadcasting stations are needed both domestic and foreign.
Venues of semi-finals can take place at neutral grounds. Whether it be at one of the grounds of the Premiership sides of either Scotland or England.
For the English Premier League sides at the top end of the division it would be more rounds than they are used to.
For the Scottish sides in UEFA competitions it also makes it more difficult for them as opposed to waiting for group stages to be played out.
This is perhaps the most realistic and fair format, the logistics surrounding broadcasters and scheduling could be an issue but if this theoretical merger of the league cup competitions was to take place, for me this would be the most favourable.
I also think the format gives teams a better sense of satisfaction knowing their cup run involves many more competitive sides.
Discussion
A British League Cup sounds like a great idea to be honest. The name of the trophy alone would stroke the ego of many of the clubs in the football league pyramid.
This 1
st Option may seem very elitist however given the fact it only includes the top 2 divisions from each country. Yet, League One and League Two have an existing tournament known as the EFL Trophy, where 16 Category 1 Premier League/Championship sides are able to put their academy sides in the tournament.
This in total means 64 teams in total compete for this tournament. By potentially adding the 20 teams from Scottish League One and Two would bring the total number of participants to 84.
I’m sure the high-ranking academies in Scotland would also like to field their own academy sides if this was ever to exist. Then the number of places available becomes a talking point.
This would give League One and Two sides from both countries the opportunity to compete for British bragging rights also alongside the proposed Option 1. Perhaps the British League Trophy.
Option 2 is the most organic solution despite and logistics that may surround it. In this world of hypotheticals, it makes the most sense.
Other than broadcasting, venues and scheduling, another significant problem that could arise is the UEFA European Competition place that would be allocated to the winner.
England’s teams have a lot more access into European competitions than Scotland, so which stage would the winners be eligible for? This of course is also based on the final standing of each country’s domestic leagues.
A thought that will surely cause some issues however this is very much about the theory of merging two nations for a single domestic cup competition. It is certainly a mouth-watering prospect of having a unified domestic cup, it manifests more tense moments, more rivalries and for whoever is concerned potentially more money.
