Thetownend.com

Confirmation of the dates for the leagues and cups. League fixtures due out at 0900 on Fri 21 August:

https://www.efl.com/news/2020/august/202021-season-dates-confirmed-across-the-efl/

Busy. Very busy.

This would have been the perfect time to either scrap the EFL Trophy or put it back to knockout football. Is last years final going to even get played?

Going out of the league cup early, eases that somewhat though.

2 cup games prior to the start of the league is interesting.

Only a little over 3 weeks till its back!

Pointless competition should be ended asap.

Particularly as it has no sponsor this year so, presumably, there's no contractual obligation to run it.

We established yesterday it now has a massive purpose. Linking bonus payments to it so they can excluded from the cap!

True! allegedly!

Money that Swindon enjoy a rare cup run! Reality is I imagine this will be the tone for the season especially if games are postponed due to positive cases.

EFL Trophy's place in the schedule is disappointing especially as there are no sponsors. You think Wellens will risk a strong squad going into the first L1 game? If EFL issue fines then god help them.

I still don't get the rush to get this complete by May next year, they'd be better off extending the season into June, sack off international football indefinitely as it adds no real value in the grand scheme of things, this should have been the perfect opportunity to get rid of the Qatar world cup.

Think we'll see a lot of 1 minute appearances in it this season....

Or just have a years hiatus whilst someone decides whether to put it out of its misery!

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

I see little chance of it being done by next May, just look at the shit show already in Scotland.

I know replays generate money but I hope that'll be the end of them beyond this coming season. Such a dated idea, in my opinion.

I think I can remember us having a league cup game in the 90s (possibly against Bolton) that went to about 3 or 4 replays before we progressed??

1989 mate. Littlewoods Cup - Third Round Third Replay.

I was going to say early 90s, so I wouldn't have been miles away!! Thanks for the clarification PV :)

A shame they can't sort the transfer window out to match it.

5th October but open until the 16th October for EFL transfers.

We know how much business has to wait for the premier league to get business done before the trickle down system starts working. Likely to be playing for 6 weeks before last bits of business are done.

Big opportunities for our fringe. I'm sure we'll have the essentials in place before then.

lockdown was a big opportunity for a lot of fringes.

Why is it dated ?

It is a chance for a minnow for e.g. to play at one of the big clubs grounds, or for the smaller club to take a big boy back to their place and have a chance with being at home, and it is also generates more money for some clubs that need it as it is an extra game with extra income.

As with most of the issues in football these days, there is just simply too much football, and too many games these days.

I absolutely agree with you that if we were to draw say Man U at home, and we manage to hold them to a draw we deserve the opportunity to play them at Old Trafford for both the prestige and the financial reward.

Given that replays are to be scapped, what do people think about changing the gate receipts and prize money dependent on the league that a club is playing in. Something like.

If opponents are in the same league - straight 50:50 split
If opponents are Premier v League 2 - Split 10:90 (in favour of League 2 side)
If opponents are Premier v League 1 - Split 20:80 (in favour of League 1 side)
If opponents are Premier v Champ - Split 40:60 (in favour of Championship side)

And similar splits for higher leagues v lower leagues etc.

I'm sure people will say that Premier league sides already don't take cup sides seriously, so making their carrot smaller isn't going to make that much difference anyway.

Totally in favour of replays - it adds to the magic of the cup !  :nod:

Maybe drop it this year, but has to be part of a 'normal' Cup set-up

I get that. I just think there's too much football and the notion of the replay is expendable.

You can still generate era defining money in a one off.

It's just an opinion which I'm happy to concede could be in a minority.

Premier League clubs don't like them which usually mean they are of net benefit to lower league clubs, for that reason alone they should be kept.

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: