Wanted to start up a discussion about the League Cup & what people think should be done with it.
I didn't go Tuesday night as I knew CP would put out a relatively weak side. It seems that a hell of a lot of clubs are not particularly interested in the competition & see it as more of a distraction than anything else & see it as a game they HAVE to play rather than WANT to play. If you was involved at the FA what would you do with the competition. I have come up with a few suggestions myself:
1. Teams have to apply to enter the competition. This way only teams that wanted to be in the competition would enter. If you don't want to enter the competition you don't have to. Still think a lot of premiership clubs would enter & use it for their fringe players to get games (a lot of them do that now anyway)
2. Like they do in the JPT, make a rule that 5 or 6 of the team that played your previous league game are in the starting 11. This would ensure that teams put out stronger starting 11's & may boost attendances. Of course this would mean the 1st round would have to be played AFTER the 1st league match.
3. Scrap the competition. Seems a very drastic option but if you used option 1 & only 10 teams entered, it would prove that teams just don't care about the competition & would be glad to see the back of it.
Just a topic I came up with that I thought might create some interest.
Any thoughts or suggestions welcome
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Comments
All those that stayed away on Tuesday would no doubt jump out the woodwork if we were to draw a big Prem team.
But what if we won it and had Palace and Man Utd in our division, who would you relegate?
I say leave it as it is. Gives back up players a chance to impress, and just let the clubs decide how seriously they want to take it.
Absolutely nothing, because this competition has nothing to do with the FA. It's run by the Football league. A completely different body......................
The income that they get from the sponsors (Capital One this season) would fall through the floor if the top sides didn't enter at all, so they will never start a row with them. As it is the real top sides get another buy from the earlier rounds.
There is no real reason to keep the competition going save for the extra money the FL earn from the gate receipts and the sponsorship. It is also a nice day out for the suits that run the FL as they are clearly not part of the football elite as that is the Premier League and FA.
I suspect that the competition will continue to be devalued more and more each season, but all the time they can get a couple of the big teams in the Semis and the Final there will be interest from Sky or whomever to show those games.
The sad thing is that most of the teams don't care about it because they know they can't win it and will probably not make any money out of it. The limited number of teams that can win it don't really care about it as they have higher priority games to play.
I like the idea of a bit of incentive. Winner of League Cup and winner of FA Cup to play off home and away for the fourth Champions League place with the loser getting the Europa League consolation prize. Same applies to 3rd and 4 th in the PL. Away goals to count double just like in the CL, and penalties if it's tied on away goals. Teams that win the FA Cup and finish third get to play second leg at home. When a team qualifies for both it can elect which one to go for and the 5th placed PL team gets the spare play off spot. Simple. Would spice up both cup comps.
Yes, for the record..