The Football League Cup, commonly known as the League Cup or, from recent sponsorship, the Carling Cup, is an English association footballcompetition. Like the FA Cup, it is played on a knockout (single elimination) basis. Unlike the FA Cup, where 762 teams entered in 2008–09, only 92 clubs can enter the League Cup – the 20 Premier League clubs, and the 72 clubs of The Football League, which organises the competition. Also unlike the FA Cup, the semi-finals are played over two legs. The winners qualify for the UEFA Europa League, unless they have qualified for theChampions League through their league position, in which case the Europa League berth goes to the highest-placed team from the Premier League not already qualified for Europe. Birmingham City are the current holders.
Although the League Cup is one of the three major domestic trophies attainable by English league teams, it is perceived by some larger clubs as a lower priority than the league championship and the FA Cup. This is largely down to the fact that the winners receive £100,000 prize money (awarded by the Football League) with the runners up receiving £50,000. This makes the competition seem relatively worthless in the eyes of many top flight teams, compared to the £2 million prize money of the FA Cup. Some clubs have made a point of fielding a weaker side in the competition, making the opportunity for giant-killing of the larger clubs more likely. Many of the top English sides, Arsenal and Manchester United in particular, have used the competition to give young players valuable big-game experience.[1] However, in response to Arsène Wenger's claim that a League Cup win would not end his trophy drought, Alex Ferguson described the trophy as "a pot worth winning".[2] Since that nadir, the League Cup has recovered somewhat, embracing the 'youth' football ethic, and maintaining its niche as an early season trophy.
The women's game has its own League Cup, which is open to the 36 women's clubs in the three divisions of the FA Women's Premier League, although the women's competition is governed by The FA and not The Football League.
[edit]History
During the late 1950s, the majority of senior English clubs equipped their grounds with floodlights. This opened up the opportunity to exploit weekday evenings throughout the winter. The League Cup was introduced in the 1960–61 season specifically as a mid-week floodlit tournament. In the early years of the competition, many of the top teams declined to take part. It was only when automatic entry to the UEFA Cup was promised to the winners that the full League membership took part.
In the last 10 years, following restructuring of European football, and the introduction of the restructured format of the UEFA Champions League, the League Cup was threatened with losing its UEFA Cup berth for its winners. It has retained it thus far, however; England and France are the only UEFA members offering a European berth to the winners of their second cup competitions. This has allowed the League Cup to retain popularity, especially with fans of clubs for whom the League Cup offers the only realistic chance of qualifying for Europe.
Aston Villa were the inaugural winners in 1960–61 defeating Rotherham United 3–2 in the final over two legs. Liverpool have won the cup on the most occasions with seven victories including four successive trophies in the early 1980s. They completed two trebles of trophy wins, in 1984 and 2001. The present holders are Birmingham City, who beat Arsenal 2–1 in the 2011 Final.
Giant killings are less well remembered in the League Cup than the FA Cup due to the absence of non-league sides and the fact that many big clubs have fielded very under-strength sides when knocked out. However, there have been some notable upsets, such as Fourth Division side Chester knocking league champions Leeds United out 3–0 en route to the semi-finals in 1974–75. In 1995–96, Manchester United were beaten 3–0 at home by York City in the second round, first leg; United could only win 3–1 in the second leg and went out 4–3 on aggregate. United have also been knocked out by Southend United and Coventry City in 2006–07 and 2007–08 respectively: in the match against Southend they fielded a strong side, bucking a trend they had themselves started. In 2001–02, holders Liverpool were defeated 2–1 at home by Grimsby Town, then humbled again by Northampton Town in September 2010. Grimsby recorded another giant killing in 2005 by knocking outTottenham Hotspur. On the 30th of November 2011, Crystal Palace travelled to Old Trafford facing a Manchester United side that boasted 9 internationals, Palace's Darren Ambrose opened the scoring with a stunning 40 yard strike, before United's Macheda equalised from the spot. Palace went on to win 2-1 after extra time in a magnificent quarter-final tie.
[edit]Format
[edit]Preliminary round
This is only used when the number of teams in European competition affects the number of byes to the third round and it would not be easier to give a club a bye to the second round. Matches involve the eligible clubs who finished lowest in the English football league system last season (normally clubs promoted from Conference National). This has been used twice to date, in 2002–03[3] and 2011–12.
The ties are single matches, with extra time and a penalty shootout if necessary, with the winners progressing to the next round.
[edit]First round
All clubs playing in The Football League (the Football League Championship, Football League One and Football League Two), unless they are competing in the UEFA Europa League, enter at this stage and join any Preliminary Round winners. Sometimes (depending on the number of clubs competing in Europe, whether or not they play in The Football League and whether a preliminary round would be an easier way to even up the numbers) it is necessary to give one or more clubs a bye to the second round. The clubs would be those eligible to compete in the First Round who finished highest in the English football league system last season (normally clubs relegated from the Premier League).
For this round, the clubs are divided in northern and southern sections (though not always equally, so there could be more clubs in one section than another and, strangely, some of the clubs in the northern section are actually located further south than some of the southern section clubs). Half of the clubs from each section are seeded and half are not. First a draw is made to determine whether the seeded club is to play at home or away, and then the club is drawn against an unseeded club from their section.
The ties are single matches, with extra time and a penalty shootout if necessary, with the winners progressing to the next round.
[edit]Second round
All clubs playing in the Premier League, unless they are competing in the Champions League or Europa League, as well as any clubs that may have been given a bye to this round, enter at this stage and join the First Round winners, although Manchester City were not exempt in 2008–09, having qualified for the UEFA Cup through the Fair Play league.
The ties are single matches, with extra time and a penalty shootout if necessary, with the winners progressing to the next round.
[edit]Third round
All clubs competing in the Champions League or Europa League enter at this stage and join the Second Round winners (making for a total of 32 clubs).
The ties are single matches, with extra time and a penalty shootout if necessary, with the winners progressing to the next round.
[edit]Fourth round
The winners of ties in the previous round play single matches, with extra time and a penalty shootout if necessary.
[edit]Quarter-finals
The winners of the fourth round ties play each other in single matches in the quarter-finals, with extra time and a penalty shootout if necessary. This stage of the competition is also known as the fifth round.
[edit]Semi-finals
The four fifth round winners compete in this round. The ties are played over home and away legs, with the aggregate scores being used to determine the winners. If the aggregate scores are level at the end of the 90 minutes, then extra time takes place to determine the winner. If after extra time the aggregate tie still prevails, the away goals rule determines the winner. However if there is no separation here, a penalty shootout takes place until there is a winner.
[edit]Final
See also: Category:Football League Cup Finals
The two semi-final winners compete to win the cup.
The tie is a single match played at a neutral stadium (which was the Millennium Stadium between the seasons 2000–01 and 2006–07 but returned to Wembley Stadium from 2008 onwards), with extra time and a penalty shootout if necessary. The final is usually staged between late February and early March, in the final third of the domestic football season.
Since 1990, the best player in the League Cup final – as chosen by the Sky Sports television panel – has been presented with the Alan Hardaker trophy, named after the former secretary of The Football League who devised the Football League Cup. The current holder of the trophy is Birmingham City's Ben Foster, the only player to win the award multiple times (in 2009 and 2011).[4]
[edit]Sponsorship
Since 1982, the League Cup has been named after its sponsor, giving it the following names:
| Period | Sponsor | Name |
|---|---|---|
| 1960-1982 | No main sponsor | Football League Cup |
| 1982-1986 | Dairy Crest | Milk Cup |
| 1986-1990 | Littlewoods (retailer) | Littlewoods Challenge Cup |
| 1990-1992 | Rumbelows (former retailer) | Rumbelows Cup |
| 1992-1998 | Coca-Cola (soft drink)[5] | Coca-Cola Cup |
| 1998-2003 | Worthington's (brewer)[6] | Worthington Cup |
| 2003- | Molson Coors (brewer)[7] | Carling Cup |
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