Limited League Cup Rights
Chris155au
Posts: 218 Forum Member
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Why are they so limited? Here we are with 2 matches on today, one of them a London Derby which isn't on TV. It makes no sense to me. Is it the same with the FA Cup?
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Chris155au
Posts: 218
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All the FA Cup QF's get televised, however there are two broadcast partners to do it.
Nobody really gives a hoot about the League Cup, the FA Cup is much more important in comparison.
It's easier for something like the FA Cup because games are spread out across the whole weekend. If anything there are too many FA Cup ties broadcast live and sometimes struggle to choose five attractive picks.
Why would the FA care about the games clashing? And if it's really a problem, can't they have separate kick-offs?
They could have done Mon-Thur
but more realistically Tues-Thur
taking into account last weekend and this weekends fixtures.
Giving the rights holders scope to show ALL matches from QF-Final should be in the TV broadcast rights contract, in my opinion.
BBC i believe.
I agree with other posters that there should be live coverage of all matches at quarter final stage. If it isn't possible to play them over more than two nights then surely Sky could at least put the second game each night on the red button?
15 years ago, the League Cup was definitely the poor relation compared to the FA Cup. Today, the gap is very small. The League Cup has consistently produced more shocks and more interesting finals in recent seasons, and the big clubs are tending to take the competition just as seriously as the FA Cup. If anything, the League Cup benefits from finishing before the business end of the season and from not having replays that clutter up the fixture list.
In short, the League Cup is an attractive competition for TV.
Can't agree. This year has been awful. Bradford were a story last season as they beat some Premier League reserve teams but watching them getting battered in the final was not entetaining
It's attractive if you like to see the reserve teams of the top clubs.
Since its introduction in the early 60s it has always been the vastly junior tournament to the FA Cup. Moving the final to Wembley at the end of the first decade, instead of having two-legged finals, and giving the winners a European place gave it some credibility.
Since then the advent of the Premier League and Champions League means that it is only the lesser clubs that truly value it. It's really there to give clubs from the lower reaches of the league an extra chance of drawing a big club in the early rounds. As for upsets, there's more to a cup competition than upsets, despite what certain broadcasters would have you believe.
Any narrowing of the gap has come from a decline in the FA Cup, not growth in a competition that many clubs refused to enter until the Football League forced them.
Just look at the sides put out by the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal to see how much the top clubs value it, except as a good outing for their fringe players.
I agree. I think I'd actually go so far as to say I prefer the League Cup, certainly once it reaches this stage. I enjoy midweek football and it never feels like it's getting in the way of the league (unlike the FA Cup where games are rescheduled, etc.) and I always enjoy the 2-legged semi finals which tend to throw up some decent games. I'll always remember watching 21 goals in 2 League Cup games at the end of October last season!
How quickly people forget.
Funny old cup is the league cup, i've been to a couple of finals at the old Wembley and they were great fun, much more lively than the FA Cup finals i've been too
The days of Oxford, Luton, Norwich, Leicester, Sheff Weds and others winning it had a real old romantic feel to it
Best not mention War of The Monster Trucks
And with I think a 24 team top flight (no Champions League/Europa just ko cups)
The BBC had plenty of midweek rights that Wednesday was a good late night. Especially with the odd boxing, highlights of a snooker or darts or whatever else may be happening.
The League Cup is no different from the FA Cup in that regard, clubs play reserve teams inn the earlier rounds of the FA Cup.
But what you find with the League Cup is that clubs DO increasingly take it seriously in the later stages. And because the final is done and dusted by the end of February, a team can afford to take it seriously and it not impact on the latter stages of their league season,unlike the FA Cup.
To all intents and purposes there really is nothing to choose between the FA Cup and League Cup.
Yes Sportsnight and Midweek Sports Special on ITV. BBC and ITV used to share League Cup Finals IIRC BBC had odd numbered years, ITV even numbered years
I can't recall if Motson ever did them, it always seemed to be Barry Davies
And asking people to get to games at 6pm on a weeknight, especially at this time of the year, is a bloody awful idea. And there'd be nothing in it for the broadcasters, you'd just dilute the audience for the live games having two at the same time, you certainly wouldn't get double. If anything it would decrease because of overkill.
By that argument you may as well have all twenty clubs playing at 11am, 1pm, 3pm, 5pm and 7pm on Saturday and Sunday so you could all be shown live. But hardly anybody wants to watch that. Most viewers want to watch the best matches, not every match.
I can never understand why people just want to watch their own team and don't have any interest in the rest of the league or cup. The games aren't played in a vacuum, they don't make any sense without the rest of the competition. I also don't see why you need to see every second of action the club plays, unless you're on the coaching staff how important is it? Always seems to be Spurs fans as well...
Good points, well made. I'm a West Ham fan and, of course, I would rather have watched our game but I understand why the other one was chosen as there was little chance of an upset :cool:
I even tried to find a pub with it on but last night's monsoon conditions, combined with free booze at my christmas do, meant that I made do with updates on my phone...
Less is often more where football is concerned...
The first division was never more than 22 clubs - and was 21 for one season which was fun >:(
Don't forget the (Screensport) Super Cup
What annoys me is how Sky insist on giving constant score updates on the other match being played. I would watch the highlights later, but don't see much point if I already know the result.
Not sure what else they can do with that, if they want to do the draw after the match. The only reason they show all the Champions League matches live is because the contract stipulates they do, and 95% of the audience watch the main games. The number of "die hard fans" is absolutely tiny, and they're subscribing to Sky anyway so it's of no value for Sky. Nobody's not subscribing because they don't show every single game.
In the League Cup you're splitting the audience, plus it's more expensive as you'd have to do full multicamera coverage of each one (as opposed to another broadcaster doing it like the Champions League). I think this is the first season we've had proper coverage of all four quarter finals, actually, last season one of them was goals-only. And how early in the competition do you do it?