Bring back the Anglo Scottish cup

[the vicar]

From the Orient site what does others think
Please bring back the Anglo Scottish Cup
I am writing to you with the idea of bringing back the Anglo Scottish Cup this time between Scottish Premier and English League one teams. With the final played at Wembley Stadium. I would got for a group stage trophy. With the final played at Wembley stadium. What do you think?
My idea is all Scottish Premier and English League one teams play group stage trophy. But that teams who have qualified for Europe are put into the knockout stages of the Anglo Scottish cup.
My idea is the Scottish Premier sides, that did not qualify for Europe and teams from the English League One play in a group stage cross border cup. With an annual final played at Wembley Stadium. Imagine how great it would be for Scottish sides to play a final at the famous Wembley stadium every year. Scottish clubs that reached the final would talk of the great time they played at Wembley, in the same way Aberdeen fans talk of Gothenburg and Celtic fans talk of Lisbon.

My reply to critics of my idea.

Every year we here people suggesting that the Scottish and English leagues merge, well look if that happened then most Scottish Premier sides of the likes of Inverness, and St Johnstone would be lucky to reach the level of the Tier 5 division in the non league Conference, based on the attendances they get. So my idea would be best of both Worlds scenario. Where they get to keep playing in a Scottish Premier have a chance of winning national cups and get to play high standard English league one sides.

Some will argue that this will not satisfy the Old Firm, but I disagree an annual final at Wembley stadium would satisfy their desire to achieve something in England without giving up their competitive chances of winning the league, and qualifying for the champions league.

I do not want the Scottish and English leagues to merge as my team Aberdeen would never get anywhere and it would render more than 100 years of Scottish football meaningless as the rating of a non league trophy for a league that would not exist anymore. Also Aberdeen would do nothing in a British league we could go 200 years without winning a national cup.

Some will say travel is too tough, But that is a weak argument. I have traveled to Wales, Scotland and Ireland and it is not that far. Plus if Bala Town can travel to Latvia for a Europa league games then surely Inverness can travel to Cornwall which is on the same island for goodness sake. Look at the distances traveled by Australian national sports sides. Perth in Austrlia travel to New Zealand in their football league. Yet people in this country say we can't even travel from Dingwall to Yeovil. Why are we so weak we cannot even travel about in our small island region, while Australians can travel from Perth to Sydney.

I would love my team Aberdeen to get to play English League One sides every year and have a realistic chance of playing in a cup final every year.

Imagine games like Aberdeen V Coventry, Glasgow Rangers V Orient and Glasgow Celtic V Doncaster, Colchester v Dundee United, Crawley V Dundee. -
Read more at http://boards.footymad.net/forum.php?tno=333&fid=164&sty=2&act=1&mid=2110544637#emBTP2mzbcdyl70M.99

[wilts rover]

Put 'em in the qualifying rounds of the FA Cup with the other non-league teams...

[Dutch Uncle]

I can see both sides of this.

Right now we play a 46 game league season (as opposed to a 38 games season in Scotland) plus 3 cup competitions and possible playoffs. That is a lot of football for a League One side with an almost certainly smallish squad. The year we won the JPT we played 60 matches, and we played 56 matches in the seasons before and after that one. The potential for fixture backlog is huge, especially with matches to be played in Scotland.

On the other hand the potential for playing Rangers (when they ever get back to the SPL)or Celtic is a potential big draw, as is a Wembley final.

For what it is worth I think some sort of a pre-season semi-friendly tournament might be a better idea.

I wrote about the creation and withering away of the original in a recent fanzine, since in a way it led to the AMC/JPT Cups:-

One example was the Anglo-Italian League Cup from 1969 to 1976 between the English League Cup winners and the Coppa Italia winners. As mentioned in the last article, the Football League Cup was changed in 1967 so that the winner would be awarded a place in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. However when QPR won the that year's final they were in the Third Division and, at that time, UEFA did not allow third-tier teams to compete in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. When the Third Division's Swindon Town won the Football League Cup in 1969, the Anglo-Italian League Cup was organised as a way of compensating Swindon for the ruling that prevented them competing in European competition. The Anglo-Italian League Cup's initial success encouraged the launch of The Anglo-Italian Cup from 1970-73 between several top English and Italian sides. Another competition, the Texaco Cup, was organised from 1971-75 and involved the top English, Scottish and Irish (both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland) clubs who had not qualified for Europe. After Texaco withdrew sponsorship it was followed by the Anglo-Scottish Cup from 1976-81. This was similar but involved clubs from England and Scotland only. Over the years the higher English teams gradually opted out and the English participants were increasingly taken from the lower divisions. Finally in 1981 the Scottish clubs withdrew because of  little public interest in the competition. The competition continued briefly with English clubs only, now being called the Football League Group Cup in 1981-2 and 1982-3. Rovers actually played in this competition in 1981-82 being eliminated in the group stage after beating Chesterfield and losing to Sheffield United and Grimsby.

   Finally 1983-84 saw the introduction of a competition which was able to establish itself over a longer period - The Associate Members' Cup (AMC).  By the way a Full Members' Cup (sponsored first by Simod and then by Zenith Data Systems) for the top two divisions was organised from 1985 following English clubs' expulsion from European Competition in the aftermath of the Heysel Stadium disaster, but it only lasted until 1992.

[Draytonian III]

I think the Texaco cup format would be a better idea, especially if we entered and got drawn away somewhere over the Irish Sea

[since-1969]

Why not have A Yorkshire Cup . League and none League pre season tournament?

[RedRover45]

Why not have A Yorkshire Cup . League and none League pre season tournament?

We used to have that in the 80's and 90's until Leeds and then the Sheffield clubs decided that they were too big and it was beneath them. We actually won it once too.

[scaley back rover]

Were we not the last club to win it ? And was it called the yorkshire electricity cup or summat?

[RedRover45]

Were we not the last club to win it ? And was it called the yorkshire electricity cup or summat?

Yep, we won it by beating Scarborough I think in the first league game which doubled up as the final.

[silent majority]

Wasn't that the Sheffield & Hallamshire or similar?

[the vicar]

Wasn't that the Sheffield & Hallamshire or similar?

No that was the south yorks cup i think we beat sheff u away 2-1 the last time we played in it

[Chris Black come back]

It was the Yorkshire Electricity Cup. It was either summer of 1994 or 1995. Duane Darby and Darren Moore had just joined I seem to remember.

[The Red Baron]

We got a big, heavy trophy in the shape of a Y for winning the Yorkshire Electricity Cup. Last time I saw it, it was being used as a doorstop in the Sponsors' Lounge at Belle Vue.

I wonder if they have it somewhere at the Keepmoat?

[NickDRFC]

Wasn't that the Sheffield & Hallamshire or similar?

No, that was more recent and only for conference sides and below.

[The Red Baron]

At this point I'm reminded of a Half Man Half Biscuit lyric:

"And I wonder, if they'll bring back, National Service and the birch?
And I wonder, but I doubt it, if they'll ever bring back the Watney Cup."