As if empty stadiums weren’t enough to detract from the beauty of football and cup competitions, the manner in which teams approach the Carabao Cup is undeniably a factor contributing to its own demise. For many, the games are throwaways. Teams make (in the purest sense of the word) wholesale changes, regardless of who they face.
Tuesday’s game saw Luton Town host Manchester United. While United were the heavy favourites, one may have expected Luton to field a strong team and steal something from the game. Instead, alongside the ten changes made by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Nathan Jones made nine changes of his own. The game effectively became a cup tie between two ‘B’ teams.
Leicester vs Arsenal on Wednesday had the same story. Arsenal made seven changes from their win against West Ham on the weekend, while Leicester changed their whole starting XI!
Clearly, teams are not seeking success in the tournament. The absence of star players make the matches far less of a spectacle than a league game for example. As a result, fans are detracted from the tournament altogether.
To understand how to fix the issues of the Carabao (EFL) Cup, we must understand its problems.
Scheduling (fans)
The EFL Cup was introduced for the 1960-61 season as a response to the growing popularity of European football. Since its inception, the winners of the cup have qualified for the Europa League (or equivalent). Most notably, the competition took advantage of the roll-out of floodlights across the country. This allowed fixtures to be played as midweek evening games - something we still see today, with the only game taking place on the weekend being the final.
With the games taking place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, it is far more difficult for fans to attend. There is a financial cost to the supporter, who now has to purchase tickets for the middle of the week as well as the weekend. With the EFL Cup, now 60 years old, also somewhat less important than league matches, supporters would rather attend a weekend game than one in the week. With less demand for tickets, revenues generated fell, rendering the competition financially obsolete to the clubs near the top of the pyramid.
Tuesday’s game saw Luton Town host Manchester United. While United were the heavy favourites, one may have expected Luton to field a strong team and steal something from the game. Instead, alongside the ten changes made by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Nathan Jones made nine changes of his own. The game effectively became a cup tie between two ‘B’ teams.
Leicester vs Arsenal on Wednesday had the same story. Arsenal made seven changes from their win against West Ham on the weekend, while Leicester changed their whole starting XI!
Clearly, teams are not seeking success in the tournament. The absence of star players make the matches far less of a spectacle than a league game for example. As a result, fans are detracted from the tournament altogether.
To understand how to fix the issues of the Carabao (EFL) Cup, we must understand its problems.
Scheduling (fans)
The EFL Cup was introduced for the 1960-61 season as a response to the growing popularity of European football. Since its inception, the winners of the cup have qualified for the Europa League (or equivalent). Most notably, the competition took advantage of the roll-out of floodlights across the country. This allowed fixtures to be played as midweek evening games - something we still see today, with the only game taking place on the weekend being the final.
With the games taking place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, it is far more difficult for fans to attend. There is a financial cost to the supporter, who now has to purchase tickets for the middle of the week as well as the weekend. With the EFL Cup, now 60 years old, also somewhat less important than league matches, supporters would rather attend a weekend game than one in the week. With less demand for tickets, revenues generated fell, rendering the competition financially obsolete to the clubs near the top of the pyramid.
Premier League (at the time) Watford's third round against Swansea last year was played in front of just 8,903 people, meaning Vicarage Road was barely 40% full. The average attendance for an EFL Cup match last season was 10,400
Scheduling (clubs)
Footballers are only human. For many, two games per week leads to fatigue and injury - something clubs desperately try to avoid. With a clear preference for league success, managers willingly rotate their players to give their key ones a rest. This is logical of course, why risk a stronger player for a less important match?
From here, the diminishing desire to attend the matches is reinforced. A fan would rather see their club’s best players and best brand of football. Fans are not energised in the slightest by the prospect of an EFL Cup match.
This is sad. Cup competitions are the most beautiful in existence. The World Cup is the most watched and supported sporting event, so there must be potential for any cup competition to thrive. When a team only need to win six or seven matches the bring home a trophy, a good run of strong performances (or even a lucky streak) can result in success of the highest order. Cup competitions have the potential to be, magic.
Rewards and Incentives
For many teams, they feel they haven’t a chance of success in the competition. You have to go back seven years to find the last winner of the competition outside of today’s “big six”, in which Swansea beat Bradford. What’s more is that that is the only the second final in 19 years not to contain a big six side.
With success almost granted for the elite, many clubs do not bother. Long runs in the competition are pointless, as you will inevitably draw a Man City or Chelsea at some point. Therefore, there is little incentive to play your best players or really go for a game when defeat in the future is inevitable. Again, you’d rather focus on the league than the cup.
The league provides primary source of reward money for teams. A higher league finish should not be jeopardised by a competition for which you receive a fraction of the revenue. Also, as noted, the lack of interest from fans will mean matchday revenues are squeezed. This also makes advertising less appealing to companies, who could pay to advertise to an audience of a much larger size.
Finally, for lots of teams, especially the ones with a realistic chance of winning, the reward of Europa League qualification is not much of a reward at all. For teams further down the pyramid, long journeys on Thursday nights are not to be desired, as this will only jeopardise results in the league. Furthermore, from this season onwards, the winners of the EFL Cup will no longer qualify for the Europa League. Instead, they will qualify for the new UEFA Europa Conference League - the Europa League’s baby brother which was born with the aim of giving clubs from smaller nations European football. The prospect of this for English teams is by no means energising.
Footballers are only human. For many, two games per week leads to fatigue and injury - something clubs desperately try to avoid. With a clear preference for league success, managers willingly rotate their players to give their key ones a rest. This is logical of course, why risk a stronger player for a less important match?
From here, the diminishing desire to attend the matches is reinforced. A fan would rather see their club’s best players and best brand of football. Fans are not energised in the slightest by the prospect of an EFL Cup match.
This is sad. Cup competitions are the most beautiful in existence. The World Cup is the most watched and supported sporting event, so there must be potential for any cup competition to thrive. When a team only need to win six or seven matches the bring home a trophy, a good run of strong performances (or even a lucky streak) can result in success of the highest order. Cup competitions have the potential to be, magic.
Rewards and Incentives
For many teams, they feel they haven’t a chance of success in the competition. You have to go back seven years to find the last winner of the competition outside of today’s “big six”, in which Swansea beat Bradford. What’s more is that that is the only the second final in 19 years not to contain a big six side.
With success almost granted for the elite, many clubs do not bother. Long runs in the competition are pointless, as you will inevitably draw a Man City or Chelsea at some point. Therefore, there is little incentive to play your best players or really go for a game when defeat in the future is inevitable. Again, you’d rather focus on the league than the cup.
The league provides primary source of reward money for teams. A higher league finish should not be jeopardised by a competition for which you receive a fraction of the revenue. Also, as noted, the lack of interest from fans will mean matchday revenues are squeezed. This also makes advertising less appealing to companies, who could pay to advertise to an audience of a much larger size.
Finally, for lots of teams, especially the ones with a realistic chance of winning, the reward of Europa League qualification is not much of a reward at all. For teams further down the pyramid, long journeys on Thursday nights are not to be desired, as this will only jeopardise results in the league. Furthermore, from this season onwards, the winners of the EFL Cup will no longer qualify for the Europa League. Instead, they will qualify for the new UEFA Europa Conference League - the Europa League’s baby brother which was born with the aim of giving clubs from smaller nations European football. The prospect of this for English teams is by no means energising.
2013 winners Swansea made 18 new signings for and played 54 games in their 2013/14 season due to the Europa League.
Ultimately, it is a self-reinforcing cycle that makes the Carabao Cup so dire. Teams don’t play players due to the packed schedule; fans don’t come because teams don’t try, teams don’t get revenue because fans aren’t interested. If the Carabao Cup was terminated, it is hard to argue that fans would be upset. However, it is here to stay, so how can we fix it?
Seeding
Germany’s DFB-Pokal is unique in the way it conducts the draw for the opening rounds of the competition. The 64 teams in the round one draw are split into two equal pots, with pot one containing the highest ranked 32 teams, and the second the lowest ranked 32 teams. This not only ensures some brilliant ties for the neutral, but gives the smaller clubs (who are always drawn at home) the chance of attracting big crowds, media attention and TV revenues, and also puts the bigger clubs out of their home comfort zones. The same format is repeated for the round two draw also.
While this may result in all the small teams being wiped out in an instant, this certainly harnesses the excitement and imagination of fans across the country. A similar format in England would have the same effect. With a high possibility of seeing ties like Barrow vs Liverpool for example, people would undoubtedly keep an eye on the draw for the early stages. In fact, this may encourage bigger teams to play star players in these early games, so as to avoid the embarrassment of losing to a smaller club.
Contrary to the belief this format favours the bigger sides, the DFB-Pokal frequently generates surprise results and great narratives, something the EFL Cup severely lacks. The competition facilitated the "mother of all cup sensations", in which Hamburger SV lost to VfB Eppingen in the second round in 1974, the first instance of an amateur side knocking out a Bundesliga club. It has witnessed some incredible giant killings in the years since.
Change the schedule
To avoid the rotations we see so frequently from all clubs, we could completely rewrite how and when the EFL Cup takes place. Instead of stringing midweek games over sixth months, you could devote a few weeks solely to the Cup, in which you play it out in its entirety, pausing league competitions.
This could give it an almost World Cup feel, with all focus being on the EFL Cup for a few weeks. While this is essentially force-feeding this form of football to the viewer, it would definitely bring a new form of attention to a stale domestic cup competition. A new format like this would also encourage fans to buy tickets and support their team.
If this were to occur, the issues arising from the stop-start nature of cup competitions would be negated. The continuance of the cup from start to finish would keep fans interested: who will finish top scorer? Who will be player of the tournament? These are questions that are never asked about cup competitions at present.
Seeding
Germany’s DFB-Pokal is unique in the way it conducts the draw for the opening rounds of the competition. The 64 teams in the round one draw are split into two equal pots, with pot one containing the highest ranked 32 teams, and the second the lowest ranked 32 teams. This not only ensures some brilliant ties for the neutral, but gives the smaller clubs (who are always drawn at home) the chance of attracting big crowds, media attention and TV revenues, and also puts the bigger clubs out of their home comfort zones. The same format is repeated for the round two draw also.
While this may result in all the small teams being wiped out in an instant, this certainly harnesses the excitement and imagination of fans across the country. A similar format in England would have the same effect. With a high possibility of seeing ties like Barrow vs Liverpool for example, people would undoubtedly keep an eye on the draw for the early stages. In fact, this may encourage bigger teams to play star players in these early games, so as to avoid the embarrassment of losing to a smaller club.
Contrary to the belief this format favours the bigger sides, the DFB-Pokal frequently generates surprise results and great narratives, something the EFL Cup severely lacks. The competition facilitated the "mother of all cup sensations", in which Hamburger SV lost to VfB Eppingen in the second round in 1974, the first instance of an amateur side knocking out a Bundesliga club. It has witnessed some incredible giant killings in the years since.
Change the schedule
To avoid the rotations we see so frequently from all clubs, we could completely rewrite how and when the EFL Cup takes place. Instead of stringing midweek games over sixth months, you could devote a few weeks solely to the Cup, in which you play it out in its entirety, pausing league competitions.
This could give it an almost World Cup feel, with all focus being on the EFL Cup for a few weeks. While this is essentially force-feeding this form of football to the viewer, it would definitely bring a new form of attention to a stale domestic cup competition. A new format like this would also encourage fans to buy tickets and support their team.
If this were to occur, the issues arising from the stop-start nature of cup competitions would be negated. The continuance of the cup from start to finish would keep fans interested: who will finish top scorer? Who will be player of the tournament? These are questions that are never asked about cup competitions at present.
Arguably as a result of their squad depth, Man City have won five of the last seven EFL Cups. However, following an injury-stricken start to their 2020/21 campaign, one wonders how they'll approach their tie against Burnley on Wednesday
Notes on rewards and incentives
While we could easily say “award more money” or “give the winners a Champions League place”, financial and legal restrictions prevent this from happening. As a result, if there truly was a cry (and there should be) to resurrect the EFL Cup, the Football League would have to think outside the box about how they would encourage teams to take it seriously.
Back in 1960, it was created so that the Football League could rival the FA and exert some influence over it. Also, back to a time when English football was of a lower quality to that played on the continent, the reward of European qualification was seen as a way to propel English teams back to centre stage.
Nowadays, the Europa League (and the Europa Conference League) are not sought after whatsoever. With the ultimate reward not great, clubs need to be incentivised in other ways. Yet, the matchday revenues via ticket sales and advertising are far from great. Also, in an age when league position influences prize money at the end of the season, even mid-table teams will sacrifice a run in the cup. It is of course difficult to think imaginatively about feasible rewards and incentives, but it is crucial if the EFL wants their cup competition to continue the tradition of rivalling the FA.
Is it time we do away with the cup altogether?
Germany, Italy and Spain all have only one domestic cup which brings the reward of European qualification. France’s Coupe De La Ligue was abolished this year, leaving England as the only country with two domestic cups rewarding European qualification. With UEFA aiming to diversify the countries represented in their competitions, we could well see them strip the Europa League place from the EFL Cup.
In Spain, the Copa Federación is a cup competition traditionally for the teams outside of La Liga, and is now used as a cup for the teams who lose in the early stages of the Copa Del Rey. This gives smaller clubs a much more feasible chance of silverware and also will not clog up schedules (as teams will only have one cup competition to focus on). While the EFL Trophy provides England with something similar, that too has become a throwaway with the introduction of U23 teams into it.
While we could easily say “award more money” or “give the winners a Champions League place”, financial and legal restrictions prevent this from happening. As a result, if there truly was a cry (and there should be) to resurrect the EFL Cup, the Football League would have to think outside the box about how they would encourage teams to take it seriously.
Back in 1960, it was created so that the Football League could rival the FA and exert some influence over it. Also, back to a time when English football was of a lower quality to that played on the continent, the reward of European qualification was seen as a way to propel English teams back to centre stage.
Nowadays, the Europa League (and the Europa Conference League) are not sought after whatsoever. With the ultimate reward not great, clubs need to be incentivised in other ways. Yet, the matchday revenues via ticket sales and advertising are far from great. Also, in an age when league position influences prize money at the end of the season, even mid-table teams will sacrifice a run in the cup. It is of course difficult to think imaginatively about feasible rewards and incentives, but it is crucial if the EFL wants their cup competition to continue the tradition of rivalling the FA.
Is it time we do away with the cup altogether?
Germany, Italy and Spain all have only one domestic cup which brings the reward of European qualification. France’s Coupe De La Ligue was abolished this year, leaving England as the only country with two domestic cups rewarding European qualification. With UEFA aiming to diversify the countries represented in their competitions, we could well see them strip the Europa League place from the EFL Cup.
In Spain, the Copa Federación is a cup competition traditionally for the teams outside of La Liga, and is now used as a cup for the teams who lose in the early stages of the Copa Del Rey. This gives smaller clubs a much more feasible chance of silverware and also will not clog up schedules (as teams will only have one cup competition to focus on). While the EFL Trophy provides England with something similar, that too has become a throwaway with the introduction of U23 teams into it.
A “losers” cup may not be a bad idea. The big clubs can prioritise the FA Cup, which will have a renewed importance if it was the only notable cup competition in the country. Scheduling issues would be mitigated and smaller clubs will have nothing to lose by really attacking a tie. We still could end up with some big names in the secondary cup, but big clubs would not want to participate in it, meaning they’ll approach their FA Cup ties with far more vigour.
Time may be up for the EFL Cup, and some form of a merger between the Football League and FA to create a secondary competition similar to that in Spain may be beneficial. Moreover, it is unlikely that any club in the Football League would complain about not having to play in a second domestic cup competition.
Time may be up for the EFL Cup, and some form of a merger between the Football League and FA to create a secondary competition similar to that in Spain may be beneficial. Moreover, it is unlikely that any club in the Football League would complain about not having to play in a second domestic cup competition.
Written by - Ben Rowe
Edited by - 3-At-The-Back
Edited by - 3-At-The-Back