The Football League’s Carling Cup Cop Out

You may have noticed that the details of the draw for this years Carling Cup first round draw have been released.

Both Championship sides Newcastle and Middlesbrough have been awarded a bye to the second round of the tournament for, well, who knows why.

Now I understand that there needed to by 2 teams allowed through with a bye to balance the numbers by why them 2? It’s not as if they achieved anything at all last season yet the Football League are basically rewarding them for their dreadful Premier League campaigns.

I suspect it’s the FL wanting to guarantee some ‘big games’ for later on in the competition by keeping these two in but I don’t know who wants to watch Middlesbrough or Newcastle get thumped off some Arsenal youngsters.

It would have been far more fair to simply draw 2 teams at random from the clubs in the first round or perhaps award them to the winners of League One and League Two as an extra reward for their achievements last season.

The draw is also seeded which is yet another waste of time. 4 seasons ago we drew Darlington at home in the first round, there was an electric atmosphere and a great game but that can’t happen this time because of the seeding system.

There were nearly 7000 fans there that night but we could end up playing Walsall or West Brom (that’s right, they’re in the Northern section) which wouldn’t generate half the crowd.

It’s no wonder this competition is treated as a joke by clubs and fans when the Football League put make such stupid decisions as this.

I’m all for splitting the draw into northern and southern sections, no-one wants to be travelling from one end of the country to another on a cold Tuesday night, but why give the smaller clubs so little chance of progressing by pitting them against Championship opposition straight off the bat.

Here are the sections of the draw which takes place next Tuesday:

North Seeded:

Barnsley, Blackpool, Coventry City, Derby County, Doncaster Rovers, Huddersfield Town, Leeds United, Leicester City, Nottingham Forest, Oldham Athletic, Preston North End, Scunthorpe United, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Tranmere Rovers, Walsall, West Bromwich Albion.

North Non-Seeds:

Accrington Stanley, Bradford City, Bury, Carlisle United, Chesterfield, Crewe Alexandra, Darlington, Grimsby Town, Hartlepool United, Lincoln City, Macclesfield Town, Morecambe, Notts County, Port Vale, Rochdale, Rotherham United, Stockport County.

South Seeded:

Bristol City, Bristol Rovers, Cardiff City, Charlton Athletic, Colchester United, Crystal Palace, Ipswich Town, Millwall, MK Dons, Norwich City, Peterborough United, Plymouth Argyle, QPR, Reading, Southampton, Southend United, Swansea City, Watford.

South Non-Seeds:

AFC Bournemouth, Aldershot Town, Barnet, Brentford, Brighton & Hove Albion, Burton Albion, Cheltenham Town, Dagenham & Redbridge, Exeter City, Gillingham, Hereford United, Leyton Orient, Northampton Town, Shrewsbury Town, Swindon Town, Torquay United, Wycombe Wanderers, Yeovil Town.

Byes to second round:

Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United, Manchester City, Wigan Athletic, Stoke City, Bolton Wanderers, Portsmouth, Blackburn Rovers, Sunderland, Hull City, Newcastle United, Middlesbrough, Wolves, Birmingham City, Burnley.

Byes to third round:

Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Everton, Aston Villa, Fulham.