TOPIC: Scottish League Cup new format

good/bad/indifferent? Personally think it's a rubbish idea.

spfl.co.uk/news/article/new-league-cup-format-announced/

Just saw that, cracking with a mate about it, when do they have pre-season?!

Dont think its the worst ever idea for them. Im guessing they dont get very big crowds midweek for that competition. Could affect us as we often arrange a friendly around that time of the year against Scottish opposition. Cant remember if we did this year or not?

Dancingbear wrote:
St mirren or was that year before.

Effectively this makes it their pre season, with a bit of competitiveness.

Bonkers

RonBacardi wrote:
Not sure. We played Dumbarton and Kilmarnock as well recently.

Straight knock out is always better than groups. Wonder if the groups will be seeded.

I always thought of cups as traditionally being a bit of extra interest as the league season grinds on and excitement tails off.
The League Cups were effectively created for this purpose.
Attitudes seem to have changed.
Take the English Premier League as an example, back in 1982 or whatever, if you were 9th in the First Division, then a cup run would be vital to keep crowds and interest levels up.
These days Stoke and WBA fans seem to get bizarrely excited about whether they finish 9th or 12th. Not sure on St Johnstone and Motherwell fans feelings on the subject.
Still, good luck to them, I suspect crowds have been poor for these games, so worth a try.

It could help clubs generate income over a longer period of time and will probably lead to a decent increase in TV money so I can't see how it will be a bad thing for them. Currently it's a pretty low profile competition in Scotland anyway... this way it gives them a competitive pre-season, it will get the clubs better exposure... particularly across the rest of the UK. BT sport will be desperate for any kind of competitive matches at that time of year. I'd definitely watch games on TV as I need any football fix in the summer months... and I can't bear to watch Man U v Thailand XI friendlies. At least they are thinking of new ideas to generate new income and interest in their league. The penalty shoot out idea is crackers though... it would have been better to introduce a bonus point for scoring 3 goals.

Its an innovative and interesting format. But ultimately it's for the benefit of the TV and filling their schedule over a quiet period. If it can help invigorate football in Scotland then good. But ultimately it's all part of Football saturation on TV, designed for sad couch Potatoes with nothing better to do with their lives.

Imagine the crowd in July for a cup game that was a dead rubber, between the bottom 2 teams who have played 3 lost 3...and the big teams won't even be in the competition. Idiotic idea.

deeksme wrote:
Its probably a good idea if you think its idiotic.

Be showing all kinds of stuff them mind, got a lot of spaces to fill. Can't be long till they start showing Cricket you would think.

Shows how desperate they are for cash in some quarters of the game now.

Dancingbear wrote:
1300 posts, and almost all of it guff.

Might actually be a pretty good idea for them to be honest. It will give them proper competitive games in what would normally be their pre season, which is bound to help. What it also does for them is get their mid season break restarted (if the lower leagues want it). The other advantage is it is obviously going to get them more TV coverage, and income. I have no idea what it will do for their crowds, but it may be no bad thing having some meaningful matches that early on in the season.

I like that idea of a bonus point from drawn games if a team wins a shoot out, might encourage them not to play for a draw I suppose.

Won't make me watch though.

deeksme wrote:
What do you mean almost?

One thing Van Gaal is big against is all of this pre season carry on going abroad etc... So many Clubs just trying to cash in as much as they can. May well be costing Celtic a place in the CL proper what they end up doing each pre season - tend to get about when they should be focused on getting through the qualifiers.

It is not exactly a new format. The Scottish League Cup started immediately after the Second World War. The initial stages were played in groups up until 1977.

The group stage formation was quite innovative at the time in that it was based around previous league positions, though how rigid that was I'm not too sure. But it gave less successful clubs a real chance to progress.

For example in the 1967-8 competition -
Group 2 consisted of Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen and Dundee Utd - 4 of the top 5 in the 18 team Division One. They played each other home and away, making 6 games each.
Group 9 was Clydebank, Brechin, Stenhousemuir, Forfar and East Sterlingshire. These were the bottom 5 teams from the 20 team Division Two the previous season. Because it was a bigger group they only played 4 games, 2 home and 2 away.

The group games were completed by 2nd September.

The group winners ( after a preliminary round to reduce 9 teams to 8 ) played quarter finals over 2 legs in mid September.

The semi finals ( 2 legs ) and final were played in October.

I like the bonus point idea for drawn games.

I suppose it is all driven by TV money but it will be interesting to see the attendances.

East Fife were very successful in this competition in the early days. They won it in 1948 ( when they were in Scottish League B - the 3 leagues were A, B, C around then ), 1950 and 1954

PS Just looked at Scottish Division C for 1946-7 and saw it included Dundee Reserves and Dundee Utd Reserves so, again, the Premier 'young' teams playing in lower leagues is not new.

Dancingbear wrote:
The other 45 are outstanding!

deeksme wrote: You think it would be any less than the meaningless friendly that they would be playing instead? At least this way they would get some TV money and there would be a chance of increased attendances if they were doing well. Let's face it this decision is about filling a TV hole and getting more money in at the lower end of the Scottish game, both of which it will probably do. It is pretty much a non-event of a cup currently so I can't see it doing much damage.