West Ham manager, David Moyes, has proposed revamping the English League Cup into the ‘British Cup’, a competition which would feature Rangers and Celtic, as quoted by Sky Sports.
The proposal follows comments from UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin, which advised scrapping the League Cup in its current format, in order to ease the strain on players [Sky Sports via The Times].
Moyes thinks it’s an opportunity to open the competition up to the rest of the UK, though, a move which would theoretically create greater interest levels.
“My opinion on it is I’ve always thought we should have included Scotland,” he said, as quoted by Sky Sports. “I think it could do with a revamp, maybe there’s a way that then a certain amount of Premier League teams wouldn’t enter.”
“I understand the fixture pile-up and there are an awful lot of games for the top players…It’s in need of some way of being revamped. Call it the British Cup.
“A couple of teams from Northern Ireland, maybe two of the Welsh League clubs. That could give us something different.”
Verdict
This is certainly an interesting concept from the Glasgow-born manager and one that may excite plenty of Bears.
There would, of course, be major logistical challenges. With the League Cup, Scottish Cup, Premiership and European football, Rangers and Celtic are already pushing the boundaries with the number of games played per season.
They would therefore almost certainly have to forgo participation in a traditional domestic competition to take part in any ‘British Cup’.
Then there’s the question of distances and finances. How viable would a midweek away trip to a venue elsewhere in the UK be for a Northern Irish team, for example?
Aside from those initial drawbacks, though, this could be looked at as a genuine opportunity for the Gers to test themselves against different opposition in competitive action.
The idea of the Old Firm joining the English Football League system, which has been vaguely floated around for years, isn’t going to happen.
This concept sounds a little more realistic, though, and there’d certainly be no shortage of Bears prepared to head south of the border for a clash with a Premier League team, especially if there was something riding on the result.