Sam’s Section: National League Cup, what is it and how much do fans and clubs really want it?

Who doesn’t enjoy the magic of the cups? Whether that be the FA Cup, Carabao Cup, FA Vase or the FA Trophy but would you enjoy a new competition in the shape of the National League Cup?

It’s a competition which has been met with nothing short of negativity from both supporters and clubs themselves who don’t see the need for another cup such as this.

Some non-league based social media pages have even called for boycotts on the games which has seen attendances reach under 800.

On Tuesday night Altrincham recorded the only attendance above 500 when 783 fans attended their game against Blackburn Rovers u21s, with tickets free of charge, but Ebbsfleet United set the lowest recording a lowly attendance of 217.

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Forest Green Rovers, the only Gloucestershire side in the cup, kicked started their campaign with an unfortunate 3-2 defeat against Manchester United u21s in front of a competition record crowd of 1273.

So what actually is this National League Cup? Well if you’re familiar with the EFL Trophy (Bristol Street Motors Trophy) then you’ll find some major similarities.

Only 16 National League teams take part in the competition with others either not selected or refusing to take part such as promotion chasing side, Eastleigh who put out an early statement of why they weren’t taking part saying:

“Whilst we qualified for the competition we, like numerous other National League teams, declined to enter the competition. This decision was based on numerous factors.

“The financial reward for playing in the competition is negligible, we don’t believe there is a huge demand for the competition from our supporters and to fulfil these extra fixtures, the club would need to increase the size of its squad which would come at considerable cost.”

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Those 16 teams are then joined 16 Premier League 2 or high level under 21 teams such as Manchester United u21s, Tottenham Hotspur u21s and Newcastle United u21s.

The thinking behind all this is to allow the u21s sides to play more competitive matches against higher or physical opposition.

This all begins in a group phase with four groups made up of eight teams (four NL and four u21s) with the National League teams playing against the u21s sides only, all at their home stadiums.

Wins are for the well-known three points, but if you draw the game goes to penalties with the winner grabbing a bonus point on the usual one already gained.

These group games run up until January before we head into the quarter-finals, semi-finals and Final which takes place in April.

This all happens in an already jam packed time frame with National League teams having a high volume of league fixtures plus FA Cup and FA Trophy games all on top which could lead to some teams potentially playing between 60-70 games in a season.

So this begs the question, is the National League Cup really a necessary competition?

Follow Sam Yapp on Twitter (X) @SJY_Journo for more

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