The Carling Cup

Alan Hardaker, known as the "Godfather of Football, was the inventor of the Carling Cup. He was the Football league Secretary from 1957 to 1978. The main reason for inventing a two legged based tie system, was so that both teams could enjoy the financial gains from a home game. Of course the Carling Cup was not very popular with some of the bigger teams for this reason. In fact after it was announced 6 of the largest clubs refused to take part at all. The Carling Cup is named after its sponsor, Carling who have been the main sponsor since 2004. The rules of the Carling Cup are as follows. All the teams from all the leagues apart from the Premiere league take part in the knock out stage. They are divided into northern and southern section, half of the teams are seeded whilst the other half are not. then a draw is made to see who will be playing home and who will play away. Once the cup reaches the second round the Premiere teams are invited to take part, this is once half of the original teams have been knocked out. The Premiere tames that have qualified for the UEFA Champions league join in the third round to ensure everybody gets a fair go. The Cup really allow all the teams from all the divisions an attempt at winning the great cup.

Carling Cup Facts

Wembley Stadium is always the host to the final of the Carling Cup, It is a single match which means it can go into extra time and even penalties if needed. It has had many sponsors over the years, and has been named the "milk Cup" after being sponsored by the milk board. It has also been called the "Canon Cup" after a tie up with Canon Photographic company. It was the first heavily sponsored cup and paved the way fro the other cups and eventually the leagues. it has also been called the Coca- Cola Cup the Rumbelows Cup, Littlewoods Cup and is now called the Carling Cup.

Carling Cup Legends

The Carling Cup allows every team to have a chance of winning the great cpu. Often it is full of many surprise winners and giant killers. The team that has won most consistently is Liverpool with seven win, next is Aston Villa, with 5 wins. Behind them is then Nottingham Forest, Chelsea and Tottenham with four wins. The hiest goal scorer is Geoff Hurst, who scored an amazing 49 Goals, 43 with West Ham and 6 with Stoke City, making him the larges Carling Cup goal scorer of all time.