Anglo-Scottish League Cup

[uni_don]

I've spent all morning watching various football programmes on TV and I've formulated a plan for a new league cup competition. Let's face it, the CIS Cup is a bit boring (well, perhaps not if you do well in it), but it's the same teams we're playing as we do every week. I get fed up of watching the likes of Falkirk and St Mirren. I'd like to propose a new Anglo-Scottish League Cup competition.

 

It will include all 134 Scottish and English league teams and have a seeding system similar to how it is now, with the bigger teams not entering the competition until a few rounds in. A fairly basic, straightforward idea.

 

The only problem I can see with that is the possibility of, for example, Ross County having to travel to Plymouth. So potentially you could have two regional groups - North and South. With that Ross County wouldn't have to travel further than Manchester for the first couple of rounds. Obviously once the big guns come in you scrap the regional groups.

 

So, what do you reckon? Would you be in favour of scrapping the League Cups in Scotland and England and replacing them with this? Personally, I'd love it. You could potentially have the likes of Man Utd and Arsenal coming to Pittodrie - a nice change from the Old Firm, and we could get trips to their grounds instead - a nice change from the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium. It would be a good chance to test ourselves against English opposition and finally settle the debate about how good the SPL is in relation to the EPL and Championship.

[glasgow sheep]

Problem 1: Regional stages (same issues of same teams playing each other as in the Lge Cup)

Problem 2: No English club in the top league would want to enter this....ever

Problem 3: As a result we have a similar situation to when this was tried before and sh*te scottish sides played some bunch for the lower leagues in England and gets beat in front of 2 men and a dog

[At The Border Guy]

Has this idea not been floated about by the powers-that-be quite recently? Would be good to watch, but can't really see it being feasible. It's a dull competition, but it pays the bills for the smaller teams. Doubt it would be an attractive proposition for fans of the smaller English teams to travel up here, so it could end up stinging the SFL teams (At the end of the day, it's an arse to get from Scotland to England, and vice-versa).

[NorthernLights24]

Its a good idea in principle but too many issues to make it feasible in the current climate. Also scrapping the League Cups and creating an Anglo-Scottish will probably only make it harder for us to win a trophy!

[The Oxford Don]

When are you proposing playing these games? Midweek? Would a Wednesday fixture between AFC and, say, Peterborough attract a bigger crowd than a Wednesday fixture between AFC and Inverness?

 

I doubt it.

[robbo]

the league cup is not run by the top flight, its run by the lower leagues.

 

The way its organised in England is that its essentially owned by league 1 and 2. They were given 2 options a few years back under the league restructuring. Option 1 was to allow the premiership & championship clubs to get massive amounts of money from the tv rights on the understanding they would still compete in the league cup and therefore play the lower clubs frequently.

 

Option 2 was that the money pumped into into english football would be shared more equally across the board, however the premiership and championship clubs would not participate in the league cup, essentially making it another johnsons paint trophy.

 

While your idea is a good one, it wouldnt benefit the clubs who actually run as it just means more smaller teams involved in it so theyd never go for it. Plus youd have to take into account the money itd cost for travel for the tiny teams. I cant see the league equivalent of lands end and john o groats wanting to travel all that distance for a nothing game.

[Guest TenementFunster]

Brown.