Top clubs now having too many games isn’t the League Cup’s fault
After being away for what feels like less time than it takes for the average VAR decision to arrive, domestic action returns this Saturday.
Fifteen ties are scheduled in the Premier Sports Cup – the old League Cup in shiny new money – with a sixteenth, Aberdeen’s visit to Peterhead, held back for a special Sunday airing by the broadcasters.
Scotland’s European qualifiers get a pass at this stage, but there are still some intriguing clashes on offer for fans.
Derek Mcinnes’ Kilmarnock, newly-promoted to the Premiership, are away to Fraserburgh, still licking their wounds at missing out on a SPFL place to Bonnyrigg Rose.
Arbroath, whose tremendously gutsy run was one of the stories of the 2021-22 campaign, will get a taste of what might have been when they travel to take on top-flight St Mirren.
And at Easter Road, fans can look forward to getting their first sight of Hibs in a competitive game under the charge of new manager, Lee Johnson.
This familiar curtain-raiser to the Scottish season, however, is in the sights of UEFA president, Aleksander Ceferin.
The Slovenian has listened to the complaints of the heavyweight clubs, who say there is too much football.
While it is the fixture list gripes
Ceferin has decided something has to give, and says he knows what
of such as Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola which hog the news, Scotland’s top clubs can be badly affected, too.
Joe Aribo played an incredible 70 games for Rangers and Nigeria last season.
In 2018-19, Celtic skipper, Callum Mcgregor, played more minutes of competitive football than any other player in world football.
Ceferin has decided something has to give, and believes he knows what it should be, advising associations that they should understand two domestic cup competitions is one too many.
Given the Scottish Cup, with its storied history, would win any tussle with its younger knock-out counterpart, that suggestion would appear to nudge the League Cup into dead-competition-walking territory.
Against this backdrop came the timely – or purely coincidental – announcement that record prize money of £2.16-million would be paid out to clubs playing in this season’s Premier Sports Cup campaign.
The winners will land £350,000, with the others getting graded payouts all the way down to £22,000 for sides finishing bottom of the groups.
Neil Doncaster, the SPFL’S chief executive – and, remember, this is the league’s competition while the Scottish Cup is run by the SFA – trumpeted the increase.
The cash, he said, would help clubs as they continue to recover from the Covid pandemic.
It was a smart point to make as fans will be less interested in the internal politics, and more about what the League does for their club.
There is a case for suggesting that even allowing for the skipped group stages, it can be a strain on playing resources for those clubs lucky enough to enjoy a run in Europe.
For the majority, though, it offers one of the two best opportunities to win a major trophy in a country where the Old Firm have a stranglehold on the top-flight title.
Kilmarnock, St Mirren, Aberdeen, Ross County and St Johnstone all feature on the list of League Cup winners for the last dozen seasons, alongside usual suspects, Rangers and Celtic.
While that is an unusually big spread, the competition has a history of throwing up some historic outcomes.
Partick Thistle’s 4-1 triumph over Celtic at Hampden in 1971-72 is the stuff of legend.
Celtic were likewise on the wrong end of a classic in 1994-95 when Raith Rovers, then in the second tier, stunned them by claiming the trophy after extra-time and a penalty shoot-out.
More recently, there was Livingston’s triumph over Hibs in 2003-04, and the Edinburgh club were again on the wrong end of a shock when they lost to Ross County in the 2016 Final.
Each one of the above-mentioned successes will be treasured, not only by the players and coaches, but also by the supporters lucky enough to be able to say: “I was there”.
When Aberdeen beat Inverness Caledonian Thistle at Celtic Park in 2014, they took 43,000 to Glasgow.
The first League Cup Final was played in April, 1947, when the Dons lost 4-0 to Rangers. At that time, European club competitions were still a few years away, and the third domestic tournament was welcomed with open arms.
It sat happily in the calendar when our clubs were playing Continental opposition, with progression determined simply by the result over two legs.
Now the Champions, Europa and Europa Conference Leagues all contain qualifiers and group stages before getting to the business end, something that saw 404 European clubs ties played last season.
So as much as the need to protect players from overload is real, the UEFA boss, Ceferin, should employ his enthusiasm for change to his own backyard – and think again.