90min

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin Suggests Scrapping EFL Cup to Relieve Fixture Congestion

By Ali Rampling

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​UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has controversially called for the EFL Cup to be scrapped in order to reduce fixture congestion in English football.

Ceferin's comments come in the wake of UEFA discussing the possibility of reforming the Champions League by opening the competition up to more teams and expanding the group stages.

However, this would pack more games into an already heaving fixture schedule in England. The UEFA president has suggested that the congestion in the UK stems from having two domestic cup competitions - unlike many other leading footballing nations in Europe (including Spain, Italy and Germany) which have just one.

Speaking to ​The Times, Cefernin said: “The League Cup is off in France already. Only England remains. I think that everybody knows that it would be better for everyone if that were not played any more.

“But the problem is that, through that cup, you finance a lot of clubs that are quite disadvantaged, so I understand the problem. 

"The English are also quite traditionalist, you like things that have been there for ages.”

The EFL Cup (or Carabao Cup under its current sponsorship) began in 1960, with ​Manchester City winning their seventh title - and third on the bounce - at the beginning of March.

However, many teams in the Premier League and Football League do not see the competition as a priority, and with the games being played in midweek, opting to field their academy or fringe players

​Liverpool were left with little choice but to field a squad of academy players for their quarter-final clash with ​Aston Villa as the first team were away at the Club World Cup.

Even in the final, Man City made eight changes from the side that had beaten ​Real Madrid in the Champions League four days earlier.

Speaking about the potential plans to expand the Champions League, Ceferin added: “We have to agree with the other stakeholders. 

"The important step is the post-2024 calendar, and then we have to form a strong European team that will negotiate the calendar with Fifa. We have many proposals on the table.

“Whatever evolution you have, you won’t satisfy everyone. I’m not naive enough to think that everybody will be happy."