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Bill

League Cup

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With the reduced season available, and the reality it will cost clubs money (without fans) in the early rounds this would look to be the first tournament to go (this season)

However -

"And there could also be major changes if the clubs involved in the European competition must participate.

A senior source at a large Premier League club told the BBC that the first casualty if the competition had to be fundamentally changed would be the League Cup.

The tournament has existed since 1960-61 and has been won by Manchester City in the past three seasons.

Although the cash prize – £ 100,000 for the winner and £ 50,000 for the finalist – is low compared to other competitions, it represents an important source of income for the Football League.

EFL sources point out that individual ties can be practical money-makers for those involved. In addition, broadcast and commercial agreements negotiated around the competition are returned to lower league clubs and, in some cases, constitute a vital part of their annual income."

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It's simply going to be a case of the clubs, players and staff having to work more with less(time and money) a lot like some of us suffer at work currently.

If the competition does not generate income for those involved scrap it for a season. International football should be the one cut back, but I suspect as with the Premier League that FIFA won't be wanting anything close to that. International travel involving changing entry/exit rules makes it a joke. Israel could forfeit their Euro playoff game with Scotland's due to goverment rules for example. The Nations League should be scrapped and international football curtailed until at least March for the world cup qualifers and a few games leading into the Euros

As for the League Cup its possible to change the format and regionalise the earlier rounds. Group stages. No extra time, but crowds not allowed in especially likely in the earlier rounds where is the benefit for the lower league clubs?

Edited by KiwiScot

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The League Cup wouldn't be an issue for teams in European competitions if they went back to UEFA competitions being only the champions from each country and those entered into the UEFA Cup and Cup Winners Cup in an open draw. It would stop the sob story of fixture backlogs for teams in those competitions, end dead rubber group games and stop the rewarding of failure (e.g. teams placed 3rd in their Champions League groups getting into the Europa League). Alternatively, remove European teams from the competition, giving those places to the teams that occupy the highest slots in the National League at the time the draw would be made.  

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4 hours ago, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:

Considering that the English football calendar is already pretty busy anyway, reducing the season by five weeks could mean that the League Cup falls by the wayside. Something has to give.

But on a practical sense, how many teams will actually benefit? If the third round has 32 teams left in it, then it will only actually be saving time for the prem teams and a handful of EFL teams, the prem teams already have fewer games to play and the EFL teams (if they can have crowds) could do with the money.... As KG says, this is purely for the half dozen teams in Europe so stuff em

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In a related note, I wonder if uefa will be lifting the restrictions on domestic matches clashing with the champions League matches?

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14 minutes ago, cornish sam said:

But on a practical sense, how many teams will actually benefit? If the third round has 32 teams left in it, then it will only actually be saving time for the prem teams and a handful of EFL teams, the prem teams already have fewer games to play and the EFL teams (if they can have crowds) could do with the money.... As KG says, this is purely for the half dozen teams in Europe so stuff em

The EFL teams generally get eliminated in the first couple of rounds anyway and I can't see fans being allowed in as soon as the earlier rounds. Also, considering they have 46 league games plus Playoffs to get through, those spare midweeks for the League Cup could be used for league games to ease the congestion later in the season.

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the big teams all have squads don't they? Just use the league Cup to field the b team and get on with it. My local side Harrogate deserve their place in the league Cup even if it does mean playing Lingard and his mates, not Rashford and co

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The clubs can't have it all ways. They moan about fixture congestion and talk about scraping the league cup. Yet are happy to play pointless European group games for finishing 2nd, 3rd etc in a league and not winning anything.

If clubs want to opt out of cups let them. But be sure they understand it will be a permanent opt out of all domestic cups and the chance of European qualification that brings. 

That will go down well with the fans. No more FA cup wins for Man Utd or Liverpool just because their players were a bit tired!

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I think we should go for it!

No European teams means the PL teams really won't care about it at all and will field their U23 teams. That leaves it wide open for a Championship side to have a stab at it. And who knows, by March (is that when the final is played?) there might be fans in stadiums so we could get a Wembley trip out of it.

I don't think we should be giving ourselves a star on the shirt for winning it or anything, but a trophy is a trophy and a Wembley trip is a Wembley trip. Could be the best opportunity we have for a non-playoff final Wembley visit in years and years.

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4 hours ago, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:

The EFL teams generally get eliminated in the first couple of rounds anyway and I can't see fans being allowed in as soon as the earlier rounds. Also, considering they have 46 league games plus Playoffs to get through, those spare midweeks for the League Cup could be used for league games to ease the congestion later in the season.

Exactly, so the point I was making was that for the majority it is only actually giving them back one or two match days, it just needs sensible scheduling and won't offer much relief from congestion. 

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My thought is that for most at the moment these games will be at an extra cost with no immediate gain,

The binners draw Exeter home or away and one of them is lumbered with the cost of travel, and most likely an overnight stay, and with no gate money to be split is this really the best use of their resources.

That is my concern, not some whine from the PL clubs.

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Long term, could there be an argument for having the league cup as a cup for literally just the EFL (ie not prem). I suppose the revenue would drop as without Man City reserves there might be even fewer people watching it. But with the JPT (or whatever it’s called nowadays) featuring prem reserve sides, you sort of wonder what the point is of having the league cup. Mix it up, make it an EFL competition, more competitive, something to win. 
 

This season though would agree seems sensible to scrap.

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