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THE LEAGUE CUP PROBLEM: 5 SENSIBLE WAYS TO SOLVE IT
Come on boffins, let's put our heads together.
The EFL Cup, also known as the League Cup if you can’t let go of old familiar names, or the Carabao Cup if you like silly sponsorships, is held in disdain by pretty much everyone, although it has seen a slight resurgence in recent years, with only three of the best teams in England, along with Manchester United, winning it in the past decade.
Still, every year, the same old debate is brought up: how exactly do we make the competition cherished? Top teams almost always play weakened teams to keep their best players fresh for the continental competitions, yet mid-to-lower Premier League teams barely ever reach the final, and it’s nigh on impossible for non-top flight teams to win it, with the last to achieve that feat being Sheffield Reserves all the way back in 1991.
Therefore, I’ve come up with five solutions to what I’m calling “The League Cup Problem” that aren’t completely unhinged.
█ 1. Disqualify Teams Playing in Europe
Most complaints about the League Cup come from the cream of the English football crop. Teams such as Liverpool and Manchester City, who play in European competitions week in week out, seem to view the cup as a distraction from more important things, even though they end up winning (and celebrating) the cup most years. Starting next season, teams in the Champions League and Europa League will have to play two extra matches during the winter as the new format is introduced. It seems the solution is simple: when a team qualifies for Europe, they should be disqualified from the League Cup for that season.
On one hand, you get rid of all the moaning from the likes of Pep Guardiola, and it’ll become much more competitive. I’d definitely expect to see a wider variety of winners if they went with this solution. On the other hand, disqualifying all the best teams reduces the reputation of the cup, and it would likely be looked down upon even more than it currently is.
Having said that, with a place in Europe for the League Cup winner, along with second-rate European competitions like the Europa League & Conference League bizarrely being taken seriously to the point that records set in the Conference League are being held in the same regard as those set in the Champions League, perhaps the downsides to this solution wouldn’t be so noticeable after all.
█ 2. Disqualify All Premier League Teams
Alright, if nobody else will say it, I will. Premier League teams, technically, have no right to play in the League Cup. It is the EFL Cup, after all. If teams like Manchester United and Arsenal can participate in this competition, National League teams such as Ebbsfleet United and Kidderminster Harriers should be able to as well. If you take that to its logical conclusion, any team that plays in the football pyramid should be eligible, and before you know it, you've got an FA Cup clone.
Perhaps limiting the competition to teams in the Championship, League One, and League Two makes sense. Again, you’ll get smaller teams winning it, and for most clubs in these competitions, especially ones in the Championship, it’s the biggest chance they’ll have at winning silverware, which simply doesn’t happen when Premier League teams, with all their money, are allowed to participate.
Sure, it will become less prestigious, and they’d probably have to get rid of the European berth for the winners, but I think a lot of (if not most) EFL teams would happily accept that trade-off if it means they get a much better chance of playing at Wembley for a trophy. To be honest though, I don’t think this will happen. The EFL won’t want to hop off the Premier League gravy train any time soon.
█ 3. Replace Some Teams With U21s
This one is actually two suggestions, taking inspiration from the previous suggestions I’ve made. The first is to have under-21 teams taking the place of clubs participating in continental competitions for the League Cup in the future, and there have been a couple of murmurs about that already. Alternatively, you could replace all Premier League teams with their under-21s.
While either of these ideas could provide a happy medium instead of banning certain clubs altogether, there are two glaring issues that, to me, make this idea a non-starter. For context, a large number of under-21 teams from the Premier League and Championship play in the EFL Trophy, a competition open to clubs in League One and League Two, so we already have a decent idea of how well they perform against senior sides. That is to say, not very well at all. Since under-21 teams were introduced to the EFL Trophy during a big revamp in 2016, not a single one has reached the final, with the best-performing team, Chelsea U21s, losing on penalties in the 2017/18 semi-finals.
The second problem is the addition of under-21s in the EFL Trophy has, from a fan’s perspective, devalued the competition massively. This resulted in many fans boycotting the competition from the 2016/17 season onwards, and participating League One and League Two teams have regularly seen their lowest attendance records broken.
Needless to say, under-21s in the League Cup wouldn’t go down too well with regular match-goers. However, taking into account everything I’ve said so far, I present to you my greatest idea…
█ 4. Merge With the EFL Trophy
The EFL Trophy has suffered from a serious lack of interest since its big rebrand for the aforementioned under-21 debacle, though it certainly didn’t help matters when the only sponsor the EFL could find for the trophy between 2020 and 2023 was Racist Pizza Inc. I don’t think anyone would miss it if it was abolished. Therefore, why not try combining the EFL Cup and EFL Trophy? It kills two birds with one stone.
The beauty of this solution is it can fit perfectly with any of the first three ideas I had. If it were up to me (perhaps it’s best that it isn’t, but bear with me), I’d say they should merge these competitions, and make it open to teams in the Championship, League One, and League Two. Sure, it’s one less potential trophy for Premier League teams, but so what? They can put more effort into preparing for games in both the league and Europe, which is where the money is. And that’s all they care about. No more matches full of bang-average youth players with squad numbers higher than the average age of politicians in Congress.
It would need to be christened as a brand-new cup competition, as even a gargantuan overhaul would cause problems. For example, both Liverpool and Port Vale could technically claim bragging rights during the same year for the rebranded competition, as respective League Cup and Football League Trophy champions in 2001. It could still be “the EFL Cup”, but only in name.
█ 5. Abolish the Entire Competition
Maybe you’ve read all of my points so far and agreed with none of them. Fair enough, I suppose. There’s still the nuclear option.
Just get rid of the whole thing. Is it really necessary anymore? The League Cup was created to recoup some of the revenue that teams would lose when the league structure was reorganised, which never even came to fruition, so you could argue it was pointless in the first place. Besides, no other major footballing force on the continent has a secondary cup competition like England. France had the Coupe de la Ligue to complement their primary domestic knockout cup, the Coupe de France, but it was subsequently binned in 2020 after only 26 years because they all realised it was a huge waste of time. And that’s saying something, considering the Coupe de France is an utter mess.
Every year, the debate about the League Cup rages on. Abolishing it altogether might be a case of cutting off your nose to spite your face, but at least we wouldn’t have to hear the same old tired complaints over and over.
Is the money the EFL gets from Sky for television rights really worth keeping this mediocre competition shuffling on? Or should we do the more humane thing and let it sit at the lakeside while it dreams of being a worthy alternative to the oldest football competition in the world?