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The Football League Cup, commonly known as the League Cup, is an English football competition. Like the more prestigious FA Cup, it is played on a knockout (single elimination) basis. Unlike the FA Cup, only the 92 members of The Football League (who organise the competition) and FA Premier League can enter. The winners qualify for the UEFA Cup, if they have not qualified for European competition in some other way.
Since 1982 the League Cup has been named after its sponsor, giving it the following names:
- Milk Cup (1982-1986)
- Littlewoods Challenge Cup (1986-1990)
- Rumbelows Cup (1990-1993)
- Coca-Cola Cup (1993-1998)
- Worthington Cup (1998-2003)
- Carling Cup (2003-)
The League Cup is less prestigious than the FA Cup and when it was sponsored by Worthington, it was dubbed the Worthless Cup. It is fairly common for larger clubs to field a reserve or youth team unless they make it into the later stages.
Format
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. The match(es) involve the eligible clubs who finished lowest in the English football league system last season (normally clubs promoted from Conference National).
The ties are single matches, with extra time and a penalty shootout if necessary, with the winners progressing to the next round.
First Round All clubs playing in The Football League (the Football League Championship, Football League One and Football League Two), unless they are competiting in the Champions League or UEFA Cup, enter at this stage and join any Preliminary Round winners. Sometimes (depending on the number of clubs competiting 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 FA 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). 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.
Second Round All clubs playing in the FA Premier League, unless they are competing in the Champions League or UEFA Cup, 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.
The ties are single matches, with extra time and a penalty shootout if necessary, with the winners progressing to the next round.
Third Round All clubs competing in the Champions League or UEFA Cup enter at this stage and join the Second Round winners (making for a total of sixteen clubs).
The ties are single matches, with extra time and a penalty shootout if necessary, with the winners progressing to the next round.
Quarter-Finals The eight Third Round winners compete in this round.
The ties are single matches, with extra time and a penalty shootout if necessary, with the winners progressing to the next round.
Semi-Finals The four Quarter-Final winners compete in this round.
The ties are played over two matches (one at each club's stadium) with the aggregate score being used to determine the winners. If the scores are level at the end of the second match extra time is played. If the scores are still level at the end of extra time the club who has scored the most away goals goes through. If the number of away goals is level a penalty shootout is used to decide the winners.
Final The two Semi-Final winners compete to win the cup.
The ties is a single match played at a neutral stadium (currently the Millennium Stadium), with extra time and a penalty shootout if necessary.
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 thoughout 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, and it was only when automatic entry to the UEFA Cup was promised to the winners that the full League membership took part.
Liverpool have won it the most, with seven victories including four successive trophies in the early 1980s. The present holders (2004) are Middlesbrough, after defeating Bolton Wanderers in the final by a scoreline of 2-1.
Finals
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| | Past winners of the League Cup |
Note: * means after extra time
1961-1966 (two legs)
Since 1967 (single game)
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