So, disgruntled with the draws for both Charlton and my Czech team, Viktoria Plzen (for polar opposite reasons), I've been giving some thought to how to fix it. Or to be truthful, the International Addicks gave me the thought how to fix it...anyway, here goes.
The number of games we have to play in leagues One and Two especially is bloody ridiculous. No other European league has 24 clubs. So what do we do? We add not just one, not two but three cup competitions on top. And then we complain about all our injuries.
So for starters both the two mickey mouse cups should be axed. Yes I know the Carabaou provides a 'path to Europe' but not much longer, you'll see. No other European league gets any qualification from other than their main cup competition, and they all get pretty pissed off about ours.
Then there's the devaluation of the FA Cup. Making it the only Cup isn't enough, we need to restore the Cup glamour, which is all about the little teams taking on the big boys. Right then. In the 3rd round and 4th round, all the League One and below teams who got through from the 2nd round will be at home to an FAPL or Champ club. Magic of the Cup, guaranteed. Whaddya think?
It is of course a completely unthinkable idea, it would be thrown out of virtually every boardroom in the country. After all it is the League One/Two owners who think the PapaJohns is a good idea, because Wemberlee, despite only two of the 48 clubs getting there and the other 46 nursing injuries and operating losses from every game, trying to get there.
And the thing is, as i hinted, this is exactly how it works in another European country. And no, it's not Latvia.
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Give the winners of the FA Cup a champions league place.
Scrap the league cup.
Restore the full members cup. Remove the u21/23s from the pappa vans paints cup. Both straight knockout but spilt the the money, some how, between all 92 clubs.
East isn't it
The Premier League clubs won't give the League Trophy now they've effectively squeezed their b-teams into it. If it got scrapped, we'd be hearing much more noise about integrating b-teams into the pyramid.
The only suggestion I could actually see happening is the "seeding" of the Premier League teams in the early rounds of cup draws. Can't see why the FA, EFL and Premier League wouldn't all agree that keeping the big boys apart in the early rounds in a good thing. It'll lead to guaranteed money spinners in the later rounds after all the minnows are knocked out.
The top flight needs to be taken down a peg or ten not just in terms of money distribution, which has helped skew the major domestic honours towards a select few, but also with respect to control and power.
The problem with the FA Cup, and arguably the league cup as well, is that 3 or 4 teams can play their second string sides in every round until the semi final. Then take it seriously.
The likes of Spurs, West ham, Newcastle, Man United now, would all take it more seriously if there was a champions league place at the end of it.
Then ditch the fucking Pizza Hut cup.
By the way the country that already has this system is Germany. The country that most admires our football *traditions*, even though we have chucked most of them away. The DFB Pokal actually starts at the beginning of the season. There is a path in for non-league clubs but the big clubs are in the 1st round, and the magic is very much there. As Big Al @GlassHalfFull can tell you, our friends and former partners in pain Carl Zeiss Jena were so excited by the visit of VFB Stuttgart that they were allowed to put up extra temporary stands just for the game. There are so many juicy fixtures. This season I was transfixed by the Baltic Sea derby between Lubeck and Hansa Rostock. Think Hartlepool v Newcastle and you get the picture (Lubeck won too).
Won't happen though, will it? We lost the soul of English football when the FAPL was allowed to set up as a separate entity
You could end up having say Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool all winning their quater final and have the last one as say Barnsley v Birmingham for a place in the champions league.
I haven't got a League Cup memory. Not a single one. How about you?
FA Cup: CL
League Cup: Europa
the meaningless comps, scrap, or make optional.
Wycombe at home?
I adore ground hopping around Europe, Germany is my favourite and what makes it special is every place has its own, unique, football culture. But no other nation on earth has the depth of professional game that English football has. Over 100 professional teams, five non-regionalised divisions and 140 years of professional football. In a country of 55 million. It’s crazy and there is no comparison to those stats anywhere else. So if we do things a little differently here then it’s no surprise, and I don’t think we should change just to align with Germany, Czechia or Latvia.
Don’t you remember those?
The game against Liverpool at The Valley 96/97
The win at Chelsea in 05/06