Change coming for cup comps

EFL chairman Rick Parry says the battle to save the Carabao Cup is on as European football prepares for an expansion in 2024.

Parry has revealed the competition is critical for the financial wellbeing of many Football League clubs, some of whom are struggling to stay alive.

On the cup competition he said: “We need it to keep thriving but we’ve got to be realistic, post 2024 it will come under pressure. UEFA doesn’t like it.

“We’re absolutely in the minority now (having two cup competitions). The move is to more and more European competitions rather than domestic competitions. We are alive to that, we’re not stupid about that.

“But the Carabao Cup is massively important to the EFL. It generates a very substantial proportion of our TV revenue and it’s very much dependent upon the participation of the top teams.”

The gulf between the haves of the Premier League and the have-nots found in the EFL is becoming bigger.

And that is something Parry is well aware of. He added: “It’s about the financial wealth of the pyramid.

“Our purpose at the EFL can be summed up as making clubs sustainable in the long term.

“In order to do that we have to have a redistribution of revenues. There is a chasm between the Premier League and the EFL.”

But Parry says any proposals for Premier League clubs to have B sides in the EFL is a complete non-starter.

“There’s no chance of B teams appearing in the EFL,” he said. “If you go back to what we debated about the relevance of the pyramid, the importance of those clubs within their communities, it just doesn’t work. What relevance does a B team have to anybody’s community? It doesn’t.”