What do you make of the Carling Cup? Sorry, League...no..Milk...no...Coca Cola...no Worthington...no...Littlewoods (Pools or Catalogue take your pick)...Rumbelows - apologies to those sponsors who have spent millions but we can't remember your name. Cup.
Time for reform! Make it what it actually is. The Football League Cup. That is, a competition for teams that play in The Football League. Let's leave the Premiership teams out of it and make it a very lucrative competition for the Football League teams that take part. What?
Let's look at the history of the Carling (League) Cup.
Started in 1960/61 season it was the brainchild of Alan Hardaker, the Secretary of a then far more powerful Football League, as a two-legged open competition to generate revenue for the 'lower league clubs'. Initially several of the top teams of the time did not take part. Indeed, enthusiasm and seriousness were lacking. Gates were poor and the teams that made it to the latter part of the competition would never enjoy such heights today. Great that Rochdale in 1962 became the only lowest division team ever to take part in a major final. Sadly an irrelevance now.
In the current era, in a move reminiscent of the early League Cup days, the 'Top' teams (well, those involved in Europe) are excused the first two rounds. For the romantics, most of the potential glamour, money-spinning ties have been lost, much in the same way as the FA Cup third round would lose its allure if the same elite were to get a bye now.
For most Premiership teams, the Carling Cup has become, at best, a proving ground for new players to establish themselves and get competitive experience, or run-outs for injured players. Even Championship sides with an eye on promotion choose to rest players. Somewhat disturbingly, the 'elite' (if they overcome the first few hurdles) start to bring in their more experienced and established players if they see the chance of a prize at the end. So where's the competitive element in that?
Why could Premiership teams do without the competition?
1) Aside from clubs that 'blackmail' their fans into going by tying in compulsory Carling Cup match purchases with season ticket renewal, gates are piss poor
2) There are already too many games played by these clubs
3) Supporter fatigue (costs, travel, over-exposure)
Why would it benefit League Teams to have a competition for just them?
1) Different winners. More opportunities for smaller clubs (Wembley semi-finals/final)
2) Better financials for those clubs
We thought for a while of giving an incentive like automatic promotion to the winners. So whichever league you were in you would get moved up one at the beginning of the next season. But we couldn't make it work no matter how hard we looked at it. So we came up with a worthwhile financial incentive. Say £5-10million for the winners. That buys one or two decent players these days. At least it would make the competiton competitive (if that isn't an oxymoron we don't know what is). But if teams thought they had a chance of winning it and gaining something at the end, not to mention a Wembley appearance or two, it would add a bit of spice that is currently lacking. Whereas now you have the big teams turning up at the park half-way through the game and ruining the fun, you'd have a prize worth making some effort for.
Shocks like Coventry's victory are all good for the game. Special praise should got to Sir Alex for his best look-upset-like-I'm-disappointed-for-the-fans face. But the truth is those shocks are increasingly few and far between and we're sure Coventry would swap it for the chance of a big final at Wembley. And, in truth, would most Premiership managers jump at the chance not to have to play in it? Surely they would. Seems like if somebody put some thought into this most could come out winners. Depends who you ask perhaps.
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