The Carling Cup is the current name of the English Football League Cup, or League Cup.
Like the [WIKI]FA Cup[/WIKI], it is played on a knockout (single elimination) basis. Unlike the [WIKI]FA Cup[/WIKI] where 762 teams entered in 2008–09 only 92 clubs can enter: the twenty clubs of the Premier League, and the 72 clubs of The Football League, which organises the competition. Also unlike the [WIKI]FA Cup[/WIKI], the semi-finals are played over two legs. The winners qualify for the UEFA Europa League, if they have not qualified for European competition through the Premier League or by winning the FA Cup. If this occurs, then 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.
Since 1982, the League Cup has been named after its sponsor, giving it the following names:
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. Arguably, it reached a low point over the turn of the millennium when it was commonly nicknamed the "Worthless Cup" or the "Mickey Mouse 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.
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.
[H="1"]History[/H]
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, and along with France is the only nation to offer a UEFA cup berth to its second cup competition winners. Therefore it retains enough importance and popularity, especially with fans of clubs for whom the League Cup offers a realistic chance of qualifying for Europe.
Aston Villa were the inaugural winners in 1960–61. 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 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 out Tottenham Hotspur.
[H="1"]Format[/H]
[H="2"]Preliminary round[/H]
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 only been used once—2002–03.
The ties are single matches, with extra time and a penalty shootout if necessary, with the winners progressing to the next round.
[H="2"]First round[/H]
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.
[H="2"]Second round[/H]
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.
[H="2"]Third round[/H]
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.
[H="2"]Fourth round[/H]
The winners of ties in the previous round play single matches, with extra time and a penalty shootout if necessary.
[H="2"]Quarter-finals[/H]
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.
[H="2"]Semi-finals[/H]
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.
[H="2"]Final[/H]
The two semi-final winners compete to win the cup. The tie is a single match played at Wembley Stadium, 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.
[H="1"]Records[/H]
[H="1"]Brighton in the Carling Cup[/H]
One of Brighton's most memorable victories in recent seasons came in the Carling Cup, when they beat Manchester City (then newly confirmed as the richest club in the world) 5-3 on penalties after a 2-2 draw after extra time at Withdean [WIKI]Stadium[/WIKI].
Most recently, in the 2010-11 season, Brighton made an early exit from the competition, losing 2-0 at Northampton Town in the first round.
[COMMENT]
In the last ten years, Brighton have reached the following rounds of the competition:
width=85% border=2 style="text-align: center"
|-
! Season||Round||Date||Home team||Score||Away team||Attendance||Venue||Club website||Argus
|-
|-
|rowspan=2|2001/02||First Round||21/8/01||Brighton||2–1||Wimbledon||6,344||Withdean Stadium|| Report || Argus
|-
|Second Round||11/9/01||Brighton||0–3||Southampton||6,489||Withdean Stadium|| Report || Argus
|-
|rowspan=3|2002/03||rowspan=2|First Round||rowspan=2|11/9/02||Brighton||1–1|| Exeter ||rowspan=2 |5,200||rowspan=2|Withdean Stadium||rowspan=2| Report ||rowspan=2| Argus
|-
|colspan=3|Brighton win 2–1 after extra time
|-
|Second Round||24/9/02||Ipswich||3–1||Brighton|| 13,266 ||Portman Road|| Report || Argus
|-
|rowspan=3|2003/04||First Round||12/8/03||Bristol Rovers||0–1||Brighton||5,518||Memorial Stadium|| Report || Argus
|-
|rowspan=2|Second Round||rowspan=2|24/9/03||Middlesbrough||0–0|| Brighton ||rowspan=2|10,435||rowspan=2|The Riverside Stadium||rowspan=2| Report ||rowspan=2| Argus
|-
|colspan=3|Middlesbrough win 1–0 after extra time
|-
|2004/05||First Round||24/8/04||Brighton||1–2||Bristol Rovers||4,217||Withdean Stadium|| Report || Argus
|-
|rowspan=2|2005/06||rowspan=2|First Round||rowspan=2|23/8/05||Shrewsbury||2–2|| Brighton ||rowspan=2|2,141||rowspan=2| Gay Meadow ||rowspan=2| Report ||rowspan=2| Argus
|-
|colspan=3|Shrewsbury win 3–2 after extra time
|-
|rowspan=2|2006/07||First Round||23/8/06||Brighton||1–0||Boston United||2,533||Withdean Stadium|| Report || Boston Standard
|-
|Second Round||19/9/06||Southend||3–2||Brighton|| 4,819 ||Roots Hall|| Report || Southend United FC
|-
|rowspan=2|2007/08||rowspan=2|First Round||rowspan=2|14/8/07||Cardiff||0–0|| Brighton ||rowspan=2| 3,726 ||rowspan=2| Ninian Park ||rowspan=2| Report ||rowspan=2| Cardiff City FC
|-
|colspan=3|Cardiff win 1–0 after extra time
|-
|rowspan=4|2008/09||First Round||12/8/08||Brighton||4–0||Barnet|| 2,571 ||Withdean Stadium|| Report || Argus
|-
|rowspan=2|Second Round||rowspan=2|24/9/08||Brighton||1–1||Manchester City||rowspan=2| 8,729 ||rowspan=2|Withdean Stadium||rowspan=2| Report ||rowspan=2| Argus
|-
|colspan=3|2–2 after extra time. Brighton win 5–3 on penalties
|-
|Third Round||4/11/08||Brighton||1–4||Derby|| 6,625 ||Withdean Stadium|| Report || Argus
|-
|2009/10||First Round||11/8/09||Swansea||3–0||Brighton|| 6,400 ||Liberty Stadium|| Report || Argus
|-
|2010/11||First Round||10/8/10||Northampton Town||2–0||Brighton||2,431|| Sixfields Stadium || Report || Argus
|-
|rowspan=4|2011/12||First Round||9/8/11||Brighton||1–0|| Gillingham || 16,295 || Amex Stadium || Report || Argus
|-
|rowspan=2|Second Round||rowspan=2|23/8/11||Brighton||0–0|| Sunderland ||rowspan=2| 17,019 ||rowspan=2| Amex Stadium ||rowspan=2| Report ||rowspan=2| Argus
|-
|colspan=3|Brighton win 1–0 after extra time
|-
|Third Round|| 21/09/11 ||Brighton||1–2|| Liverpool || 21,897 || Amex Stadium || Report || Argus
|-
Like the [WIKI]FA Cup[/WIKI], it is played on a knockout (single elimination) basis. Unlike the [WIKI]FA Cup[/WIKI] where 762 teams entered in 2008–09 only 92 clubs can enter: the twenty clubs of the Premier League, and the 72 clubs of The Football League, which organises the competition. Also unlike the [WIKI]FA Cup[/WIKI], the semi-finals are played over two legs. The winners qualify for the UEFA Europa League, if they have not qualified for European competition through the Premier League or by winning the FA Cup. If this occurs, then 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.
Since 1982, the League Cup has been named after its sponsor, giving it the following names:
- Milk Cup (1982 to 1986), sponsored by the Milk Marketing Board
- Littlewoods Challenge Cup (1986 to 1990), sponsored by Littlewoods
- Rumbelows Cup (1990 to 1992), sponsored by Rumbelows
- Coca-Cola Cup (1992 to 1998), sponsored by Coca-Cola
- Worthington Cup (1998 to 2003), sponsored by Worthington Draught bitter
- Carling Cup (2003 to 2012), sponsored by Carling
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. Arguably, it reached a low point over the turn of the millennium when it was commonly nicknamed the "Worthless Cup" or the "Mickey Mouse 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.
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.
[H="1"]History[/H]
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, and along with France is the only nation to offer a UEFA cup berth to its second cup competition winners. Therefore it retains enough importance and popularity, especially with fans of clubs for whom the League Cup offers a realistic chance of qualifying for Europe.
Aston Villa were the inaugural winners in 1960–61. 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 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 out Tottenham Hotspur.
[H="1"]Format[/H]
[H="2"]Preliminary round[/H]
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 only been used once—2002–03.
The ties are single matches, with extra time and a penalty shootout if necessary, with the winners progressing to the next round.
[H="2"]First round[/H]
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.
[H="2"]Second round[/H]
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.
[H="2"]Third round[/H]
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.
[H="2"]Fourth round[/H]
The winners of ties in the previous round play single matches, with extra time and a penalty shootout if necessary.
[H="2"]Quarter-finals[/H]
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.
[H="2"]Semi-finals[/H]
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.
[H="2"]Final[/H]
The two semi-final winners compete to win the cup. The tie is a single match played at Wembley Stadium, 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.
[H="1"]Records[/H]
- Most tournament wins (team): 7 wins, Liverpool
- Most final appearances (team): 10, Liverpool
- Most tournament wins (individual): 5, Ian Rush for Liverpool
- Most final appearances: (individual): 6, Ian Rush for Liverpool (1981-4, 1987, 1995) and Emile Heskey for Leicester City (1997, 1999, 2000), Liverpool (2001, 2003) and Aston Villa (2010).
- Highest goalscorer (career): Geoff Hurst, Ian Rush 49 goals
- Highest goalscorer (season): Clive Allen, for Tottenham Hotspur, 12 goals in 1986–87
- Most goals scored in a match (individual): 6 goals, by Frankie Bunn for Oldham Athletic vs Scarborough, 25 October 1989
- Biggest win: West Ham United 10–0 Bury, second round second leg, 25 October 1983 and Liverpool 10–0 Fulham, second round first leg, 23 September 1983
- Youngest player: Ashley Chambers, 15 years 203 days, for Leicester City vs Blackpool, 2005
- Youngest goalscorer in the final: Norman Whiteside, 17 years 324 days, for Manchester United vs Liverpool, 1983
- Youngest captain in the final: Barry Venison, 20 years, 7 months 8 days, for Sunderland vs Norwich City, 1985
[H="1"]Brighton in the Carling Cup[/H]
One of Brighton's most memorable victories in recent seasons came in the Carling Cup, when they beat Manchester City (then newly confirmed as the richest club in the world) 5-3 on penalties after a 2-2 draw after extra time at Withdean [WIKI]Stadium[/WIKI].
Most recently, in the 2010-11 season, Brighton made an early exit from the competition, losing 2-0 at Northampton Town in the first round.
[COMMENT]
In the last ten years, Brighton have reached the following rounds of the competition:
- 2001/2: Second Round
- 2002/3: Second Round
- 2003/4: Second Round
- 2004/5: First Round
- 2005/6: First Round
- 2006/7: Second Round
- 2007/8: First Round
- 2008/9: Third Round
- 2009/10: First Round
- 2010/11: First Round
|-
! Season||Round||Date||Home team||Score||Away team||Attendance||Venue||Club website||Argus
|-
|-
|rowspan=2|2001/02||First Round||21/8/01||Brighton||2–1||Wimbledon||6,344||Withdean Stadium|| Report || Argus
|-
|Second Round||11/9/01||Brighton||0–3||Southampton||6,489||Withdean Stadium|| Report || Argus
|-
|rowspan=3|2002/03||rowspan=2|First Round||rowspan=2|11/9/02||Brighton||1–1|| Exeter ||rowspan=2 |5,200||rowspan=2|Withdean Stadium||rowspan=2| Report ||rowspan=2| Argus
|-
|colspan=3|Brighton win 2–1 after extra time
|-
|Second Round||24/9/02||Ipswich||3–1||Brighton|| 13,266 ||Portman Road|| Report || Argus
|-
|rowspan=3|2003/04||First Round||12/8/03||Bristol Rovers||0–1||Brighton||5,518||Memorial Stadium|| Report || Argus
|-
|rowspan=2|Second Round||rowspan=2|24/9/03||Middlesbrough||0–0|| Brighton ||rowspan=2|10,435||rowspan=2|The Riverside Stadium||rowspan=2| Report ||rowspan=2| Argus
|-
|colspan=3|Middlesbrough win 1–0 after extra time
|-
|2004/05||First Round||24/8/04||Brighton||1–2||Bristol Rovers||4,217||Withdean Stadium|| Report || Argus
|-
|rowspan=2|2005/06||rowspan=2|First Round||rowspan=2|23/8/05||Shrewsbury||2–2|| Brighton ||rowspan=2|2,141||rowspan=2| Gay Meadow ||rowspan=2| Report ||rowspan=2| Argus
|-
|colspan=3|Shrewsbury win 3–2 after extra time
|-
|rowspan=2|2006/07||First Round||23/8/06||Brighton||1–0||Boston United||2,533||Withdean Stadium|| Report || Boston Standard
|-
|Second Round||19/9/06||Southend||3–2||Brighton|| 4,819 ||Roots Hall|| Report || Southend United FC
|-
|rowspan=2|2007/08||rowspan=2|First Round||rowspan=2|14/8/07||Cardiff||0–0|| Brighton ||rowspan=2| 3,726 ||rowspan=2| Ninian Park ||rowspan=2| Report ||rowspan=2| Cardiff City FC
|-
|colspan=3|Cardiff win 1–0 after extra time
|-
|rowspan=4|2008/09||First Round||12/8/08||Brighton||4–0||Barnet|| 2,571 ||Withdean Stadium|| Report || Argus
|-
|rowspan=2|Second Round||rowspan=2|24/9/08||Brighton||1–1||Manchester City||rowspan=2| 8,729 ||rowspan=2|Withdean Stadium||rowspan=2| Report ||rowspan=2| Argus
|-
|colspan=3|2–2 after extra time. Brighton win 5–3 on penalties
|-
|Third Round||4/11/08||Brighton||1–4||Derby|| 6,625 ||Withdean Stadium|| Report || Argus
|-
|2009/10||First Round||11/8/09||Swansea||3–0||Brighton|| 6,400 ||Liberty Stadium|| Report || Argus
|-
|2010/11||First Round||10/8/10||Northampton Town||2–0||Brighton||2,431|| Sixfields Stadium || Report || Argus
|-
|rowspan=4|2011/12||First Round||9/8/11||Brighton||1–0|| Gillingham || 16,295 || Amex Stadium || Report || Argus
|-
|rowspan=2|Second Round||rowspan=2|23/8/11||Brighton||0–0|| Sunderland ||rowspan=2| 17,019 ||rowspan=2| Amex Stadium ||rowspan=2| Report ||rowspan=2| Argus
|-
|colspan=3|Brighton win 1–0 after extra time
|-
|Third Round|| 21/09/11 ||Brighton||1–2|| Liverpool || 21,897 || Amex Stadium || Report || Argus
|-
