Clues have been liberally scattered throughout recent seasons pointing to a competition that feels increasingly more like a nuisance than a joy.
Their disdain is effectively endorsed by boardrooms across the land. The winners, who may have fought through six rounds prior to the final, are rewarded with a cheque for £100,000. Owners stand more chance of earning that cash via an appearance on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? than a gruelling, multi-month football tournament.
Of course, that's all well and good for Premier League and relatively cash-flush Championship teams, but what about the League One and League Two outfits who rely on varied competitions for cash? Well, few of them truly benefit anyway, certainly not on a consistent annual basis.
There are other financial incentives along the way. Scoring a big tie away to a Premier League giant or a big stadium can add zeroes to a club's bottom line. However, the ultimate result of everything above leads to the big problem: a total apathy towards the early rounds of the cup from fanbases who should feel they can win it. And that harms the all-important gate money. There's no point drawing a Premier League team if their fans swerve the tie.
Apathy is most apparent when focusing on Premier League teams, who – like it or not – should be the headline acts in this competition. They should be the star attractions, drawing in big crowds to enjoy their big talents. But they're not.
The Fans' View on... the Carabao Cup
Jay Mottershead, Stretford Paddock (Manchester United) Carabao Cup 2025/26 second round (L2) Grimsby Town 2-2 Manchester United (PRM) Grimsby Town won 12-11 on penalties. There’s been quite a few lows as a Manchester United fan in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era but few were quite as egregious as watching the Reds being dumped out of the Carabao Cup by League Two Grimsby Town. It may seem like sour grapes to be knocked out in the second round of any cup competition and then claim it’s actually the competition and not United that needs changing, but in this case maybe both things can be true. While the open-heart surgery the United side requires is a much-talked-about topic, and rightly so, those debates can be saved for another day. There’s the other question of whether the Carabao needs a shake-up – and it’s a valid one. It is in real danger of becoming even less than an afterthought. The winners tend to finish high enough in the Premier League to have qualified for the Champions League, so the carrot of Conference League qualification for those who lift the trophy is rendered meaningless. In its defence, it remains the first opportunity each season to lift silverware and the final is still a trip to Wembley, but could the joruney be a little more enticing? Would a Champions League spot for the winner escalate its importance or maybe even fixtures abroad? Perhaps the powers-that-be could use it as a petri dish for some innovative ideas regarding new rules – multiball matches anyone? No? OK, fair enough. Does the Carabao need a shake-up? Maybe, though not as much as the United squad. One rule they could change is that teams from League Two aren’t allowed to win against Premier League opposition, that one would’ve saved me and many other Reds a lot of angst…Wolves attracted just 19,000, Brentford welcomed 15,000 albeit in a much smaller ground than others mentioned, Fulham dropped to just 11,000. Of the 51 teams to host a Carabao Cup match this season, only 14 grounds were filled above 50 per cent. Premier League new boys Burnley lodged the 25th-highest attendance with a paltry 7,019 fans in tow for their clash with Derby.
This is not an attack on fans. The cost of living is up, prices are high, there's enough football in enough forms to satiate all appetites and every match is also shown live on Sky Sports. The Carabao Cup is seen as an unnecessary expenditure for many, and an opportunity for tourists, casual fans and That YouTube Video Blogger You Hate to scoop easy tickets to big grounds usually rendered inaccessible to many.
Is it a simple case of upping prize money? Not entirely. Indirectly, a significant uplift may trigger a chain reaction from boardroom to dressing room if the competition is financially worth it. Greater cash, greater stakes, greater need to start greater players, greater interest from fans. But that wouldn't solve all the competition's woes.
Football authorities have toyed with the idea of hosting matches abroad in other competitions. Could the Carabao Cup set itself apart from the FA Cup by being played across the globe? Potentially, but travel logistics in an already-cramped schedule would almost entirely knock that idea on the head before it took flight.
Imagine a competition starting with a single preliminary knockout round featuring a blend of Championship, League One and League Two teams to arrive at a lovely number of 64 teams. They would be divided into a pair of 32-team Carabao Cup North and Carabao Cup South conferences. Eight groups of four in each. Three matches per team.
Taking the northern strand as an example, the winners of each group would advance to regionalised northern quarter-finals and semi-finals before a showpiece Carabao Cup Northern Final hosted at a neutral club stadium in, you guessed it, the glorious North. The winners are handed the Carabao Cup trophy, they celebrate long into the night, they've done it, kings of the North. Hurrah!
The Fans' View on... the Carabao Cup
Gav Henderson, Roker Report (Sunderland) Carabao Cup 2025/26 second round (PRM) Sunderland 1-1 Huddersfield (L1) Huddersfield won 6-5 on penalties. The problem each club faces is that we are all fighting our own battles and have our own reasons for why we may or may not take the competition particularly seriously. In Sunderland's case, our sole aim this season has to be to survive in the Premier League. To do that, we've got to focus on what happens week-to-week, and a cup competition is unfortunately a distraction from the most important thing - staying up. So, from our perspective, fielding a full strength team in the second week of the season just isn't going to happen when just days later we're playing a Premier League game. On top of that, the transfer window runs until the end of August. Unless something radical happens whereby the deadline is moved to before the season starts, worldwide, then clubs are going to be backed into a corner when it comes to who they can and can't select for these games that are deemed less important. With that in mind - is the timing of the start of the League Cup the issue? I know the FA Cup dominates the schedule from January onwards, but it has to be said that when teams are more sure of their place in the pecking order, they've got a better idea of how seriously they can take it. Moving the League Cup to later in the calendar would benefit clubs like mine who have no choice but to prioritise Premier League football early in the season. If we get to January and Sunderland are sat in the top half, way clear of the relegation zone, I'd imagine we'll take the FA Cup seriously, and that can only be a good thing for the competition and the clubs taking part.You might hate that specific vision, it's not without flaws, but if the League Cup is to survive, it must become more than a pale imitation of the FA Cup, played in the exact same format without the non-league fairytales. A radical reshape would give the League Cup an identity of its own, and offer clubs a tap-in when it comes to marketing.
There are countless ways to shake up the cup, this could be one of them. What is certain – without reform, the League Cup is likely to find itself knocked out.
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