Cup Conundrum

This

 

Ah yes, also agree C.L. group teams should not go into Europa. Dont have a problem with teams from final C.L. qualifier going into Europa to soften the financial blow of missing C.L. group stage and get more teams giving C.L. a decent go and keep standards high but group stage teams have earned enough and had their go for the season and should drop out.

 

100%.

Thought that was just me.

 

UEFA agree with you and have already changed the format from the 2014/15 season.
The winners of the Europa League will enter the Champions League the following season 15/16, probably in the prelim rounds.

 

I would leave the League Cup as it is, with continued entry to the Europa League for the winners.
Don't get why anyone would want to dump it, clubs like ours realistically have two chances to win a trophy, so why cut the chances in half, leaving one trophy to play for.

If a club chooses not to give 100% commitment to the LC, more fool them.

Besides football isn't all about what's best for the PL clubs, a lot of the 1st and 2nd division clubs rely/hope for a draw against PL clubs for gate money/ TV money etc. Why take the chance of glory away from the not so well off clubs?

Dumping the competition would be another way of widening the gap between the have and have nots and comes across as selfish.

If Man City don't win anything else this season, they'll be grateful for winning the LC last week.

I don't mind the idea of a CL place for the FA Cup Winners as to me it may close the gap with the so called top clubs.
But, does winning six games warrant a CL place, look at Sunderland this season - Carlisle, Kidderminster, Southampton and Hull, had they beaten Hull, they'd have then had Sheffield United and possibly Wigan in the final. Is winning a run of games like that worth more than a club that has toiled all season over 38 games against the elite clubs in the country?

Lets say, Hull or us for that matter were to win the FA Cup, no disrespect to Hull, but entry would be into the preliminary rounds of the CL and not an easy ask to get through to the group stages. Losing in the prelims would affect the England clubs co-efficient. As it stands, Spain, Germany and England have four entrants but if English clubs continue to struggle in Europe this could drop to three for the CL and retaining three for the Europa League.

The idea of having a cup competition with Scottish clubs had been tried and tested and blown out the water as it became a joke.
If you're my age you'll remember the Anglo-Scottish Cup and what became of it.

 

The Anglo-Scottish Cup was a tournament arranged for teams in the English and Scottish football leagues during the summer for several years during the 1970s. It was created in 1975 as a new incarnation of the Texaco Cup, with a similar format to its predecessor, but involving clubs from England and Scotland only.

The competition made every attempt to maintain the status of a top-level tournament. Newcastle United were expelled from the 1976–77 competition for playing a weakened team in the first leg of their quarter-final against Ayr United.[1] Over the years, however, English entrants were increasingly drawn from the lower divisions and in 1981 the Scottish clubs withdrew as the public showed little interest in the competition. As the final winner Chesterfield still holds the trophy and it is displayed in its Board Room. The competition continued, with English clubs only, as the Football League Group Cup.

At least some good came of it, little Chesterfield have a trophy in their Board Room.

 

It got that bad, we got kicked for fielding a weakened team.
One of my first memories of going to a match was against Hearts in the Texaco Cup.
It was in 1971 and I was only ten, I only remember it because of the trouble.
I was in the old West Stand with my old man, and all I can remember of it are bottles etc being thrown back and forwards from the Pddock and the Gallowgate where the Hearts fans were and then loads of trouble outside after the game. My first memory of football violence.

 

Good news, would prefer it to be the group stages but still a start especially if in final qualifier which still leaves loser in Europa.

 

Have to agree with all of this. As for F.A. cup maybe the winners could go into a (financially lucrative) playoff for a C.L. place, lets face it financially the P.L. have been looking for some way to have play offs for a while and this may be a way of doing it.
I too remember the useless anglo scottish cup and cant really recommend it although the similarly pointless Anglo Italian Cup and Texaco Cup have fonder memories as we won the Italian once and the Texaco twice lol. Two glittering parts of our history to go with our fairly recent Intertoto cup win. I actually didnt mind the Intertoto as it was more interesting than pre season friendlies and could lead to the UEFA cup.

 

This is my issue with awarding the FA Cup winner a CL place. It seems a bit of a rich reward for the effort.

We have to find a way to increase interest in the FA Cup. If the dumping the league cup meant the FA Cup got its draw back then I'd welcome it. I can't see how the gap would widen by dumping it. As it stands all you get is a place in the poisoned chalice of the Europa, and a trophy which although nice to win, has been seriously devalued in recent years. Winning it does not help close the gap if you look at those outside the big guns who have since 2000 - look to Swansea, Birmingham, Leicester, Blackburn. Even many of the runners up the same fate.

The Europa format needs a major overhaul. It has been a disaster since day 1. To allow CL losers to join in part way through is farcical. When they allowed Man U to not enter the FA Cup in favour of the World Club Championship, they made a huge error too.

 

I like the circular reasoning. "We can't win it. Therefore it's not worth winning. Therefore no-one values it. How can we get everyone to value it again?"

Try winning it. You'll probably value it a wee bit more then.

 

I tend to think the League Cup is not needed these days. The F.A. Cup would be taken much more seriously by every club if it was the only domestic trophy available. I think the lure of a place at Europe's top table for winning it would focus everybody's attention to it! I'm not sure it's right to win a CL spot for winning the FA Cup, but you can't argue it would certainly increase the esteem of the competition. As for the League Cup, having a trophy exclusively for teams in the Football League has always seemed a bit precious to me anyway.

The Europa League format is plain daft - far too many games - it should purely be a knock-out competition over two legs. Change the name back to the UEFA Cup as well. The Champions League is ok as it is, but i've always preferred the two leg knock-out format. Again I think there are too many fixtures for most clubs except the most wealthy... they will continue to get richer and everyone else falls further behind.

We really do need to look at a winter break. Many other countries do it and it really doesn't hurt them!

Increased prize money will always be attractive but I strongly disagree about having rules for 'weakened' sides. You can't have someone from outside your own club deciding what your best team is, then punishing you when you don't play them. It's the stuff of farce!

 

Agree with this

 

Howay Sid, unban me, I chomping at the bit to rip the piss

 

You will find GC or whatever his new monniker is will have a problem with that mate.
Best give up the ghost on that one .

 

Oh aye I know mate. Big wet fanny that he is. They keep going on about Sunderland getting ripped to bits on here being an obsession, if it was over there, 4 or 5 couldn't take part.