The League Cup. The Conti Cup. The Sandwich Cup. When it comes to the trophies handed out at the end of the season, the League Cup is the low man on the totem pole.
It is something WSL Football, the WSL’s governing body, has clearly noticed, with a recent series of bizarre and embarrassing attempts to re-invigorate the competition. The League Cup is badly outdated, to the extent that some have argued it should be dispensed with altogether. But should it be? Is the League Cup really worth saving? And how can it be saved?
To understand why the League Cup even exists, we need to wind the clocks back to 1992, and the formation of the Women’s Football League. Until then, Women’s Football was strictly regionalised, with each region having its own league table and cup competition. The only time a team would play another from outside their regional bubble was in the FA Women’s Cup. When the WFA National League was formed, the best teams were plucked from the scattered regional leagues and brought together to compete under one banner that spanned the entire country. To replace the regional cup competitions, a new League Cup was created as well. Only teams that competed in the National League Premier Division, Division One North and Division One South, could enter.
Flash forward to 2011, and the formation of the WSL meant another level added to the top of the women’s Footballing pyramid. Eight teams were chosen from the Premier League (six from the National Division, two from the Northern Division) to be promoted up to this exciting new endeavour. However, in doing so, they would no longer be part of the Premier League, and so would not be able to compete in the Premier League Cup. This led to the formation of the WSL Cup, a competition solely for the eight members of the WSL. This would later expand when the Premier League National Division became the WSL 2, creating the two-tier league system we have in the WSL today, and the mix of WSL and WSL 2 teams that compete in the League Cup.
Because of the summer scheduling of WSL, the WSL Cup represented the season finale for each WSL season. The Final would take place after the final game of the WSL season, providing a big send off for fans before the winter break, which would last for months. In effect, it was then what the Women’s FA Cup is now, which at the time was a mid-season competition. But with the switch to the winter league format in 2017, the roles have been reversed, with WSL Cup, now branded the League Cup, becoming the mid-season competition. Its relevancy has shrunk ever since, as shown by the poor level of coverage, outdated format, and little interest from match-going fans. However, it is a competition that is still relevant, and rather than being dispensed with, it should be revamped and revitalised
Unfortunately, those in charge of making that decision have badly missed the mark, as evidenced by the shambles that unfolded in the League Cup draw. Cup draws very much play by the book. A presenter will host, an ex-player will pull the balls out of the bowl or bag, and we might here the odd anecdote or two about the teams along the way.
It therefore came as a complete surprise when WSL Football decided to abandon normal process this season, as the 2025-26 League Cup draw was instead conducted on a TikTok live by GK Barry and Ella Rutherford.
What followed was a cringe-infested disaster, with mis-handled balls, crude jokes, and bizarre jabs at Tottenham Hotspur. It was completely at odds with what the cup draws have been and should be, and it left fans on all sides incensed by the mockery they had endured. WSL Football have not had the smoothest of debut seasons, with complaints over kick-off times and online content a regular discourse in group chats and social media discussions, and the decision to appoint Barry and Rutherford to conduct the draw, and to conduct it in that manner, has done little to improve their reputation.
Barry and Rutherford’s antics meant the League Cup draw collapsed into a farcical circus which simply did not belong there. Cup draws aren’t meant to be funny or quirky; they are meant to be drab and boring. The intrigue and excitement comes not from the presenters, but from the outcome of the draw itself. People don’t want to hear ghastly innuendos or ‘banter-like’ stabs at other teams. They just want to see who their team gets in the other round. Trying to jazz that up would be like turning the shipping forecast into a song and dance number. Not only was it tone deaf, but it also devalued the competition and the teams competing in it.
WSL Football’s inability to read the room continues to infuriate, especially when last season, they got it absolutely correct. A draw held at the host stadium for the final. A TV presenter and an ex-player conducting it. The event livestreamed on the League’s YouTube channel. This is how Cup draws should be done. It’s a lesson the Women’s FA Cup, after over 50 years, has finally learnt, and their competition is all the better for it. For WSL Football to have made this backwards step is perplexing, but not surprising. What was surprising was the fact they managed to blunder yet again just days later. Not content with jeopardising the League Cup Draw, WSL Football tried again by announcing that the competition would be reformatted next season, with the group stage replaced with a ‘Swiss Model’ league system, and the exclusion of the Teams who have qualified for Europe.
The need the re-format the League Cup has been accelerated with the long overdue expansion of the WSL to 14 Teams. With more teams in the competition than ever before, more fixtures will need to be added to an ever-overflowing Football calendar. Something had to give, and the decision to evict the WSL’s Top 3 was seen to alleviate the stress on player welfare and reduce the fixture list.
For this point alone, WSL Football should be commended, but problem is that is misses the wider issue and fails to resolve plenty of the others. Removing the three best teams in the league from a cup competition immediately reduces interest and punishes those teams for performing well by denying them a trophy to compete for. And interest is key here, as there is little appetite currently for the League Cup Group Stage, and simply remodelling it as a league phase won’t rectify that either.
Since 2012, the League Cup has utilised a group stage system in its earlier rounds. It helped increase the fixture list at a time when only eight teams competed in the WSL. But the world has changed, and whilst the WSL has evolved, the League Cup has refused to move with the times. 24 teams are now part of the League Cup; the need for a group stage, or even a league phase, simply doesn’t exist anymore. What’s worse, the use of the group stage means there is little jeopardy in the earlier rounds. In 2016, the League Cup briefly experimented with a pure knockout format. It led to one of the great League Cup shocks, as London Bees drew 3-3 with WSL Champions Chelsea, before knocking them out on penalties. Such drama and excitement have long been absent in the group stage format, and this will only be exacerbated further when all the Goliaths have been removed, leaving David with no one to beat.
Just like with the League Cup draw, WSL Football’s obsessive persistence with trying to make the competition ‘different’ to make it more exciting means they miss the obvious solutions that exist in front of them. A return to a pure knockout would easily alleviate the fixture list, and in the case of clubs with larger squads, force them to rotate in fringe squad players and academy products. Pure knockout also creates more cup-set opportunities, which would increase interest further. Removal of regionalisation means a greater variety of matches, rather than the same group stage combinations every season.
Perhaps the biggest (and most damning) announcement WSL Football made is the one they did not. The one thing the League Cup badly needs, has always need, and has never had, is a broadcaster that covers every round. For too long, fans have been at the mercy of club streams to watch League Cup matches, or if their club gets lucky on the WSL YouTube roulette. There has never been a TV broadcaster for the earlier rounds of the League Cup, instead only for the Semi Finals and Final. It’s a gaping hole in WSL Football’s portfolio that they still choose not to exploit, despite the high potential it can offer.
Change itself is not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, in the case of the League Cup, it has become necessary. It is admirable to a point how radical WSL Football are trying to be with their attempts to evolve the game. Sadly, their radical thinking risks missing the bigger problems, and in doing so, damaging the competition further.
WSL Football want to change the League Cup. Unfortunately they don’t know how to.
