Coupe de la Ligue

The Coupe de la Ligue (German: Ligapokal) was a French football cup competition, in which only men's teams were allowed to participate that had professional status in the respective season; for the time being, this was the 40 clubs of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 as well as five clubs from the third-class National 1. It was organized by the league association Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP). It was also only the third most important national title in French football behind the national championship and national cup ("Coupe de France"). Already after the end of the 2008/09 season, the abolition of the competition was being considered. The reason for this was the desire of many clubs to award a place in the UEFA Europa League to the fifth-placed team in the Ligue 1 table rather than the winner of the League Cup. However, this would have removed the basis for the €10 million contract with France Télévisions, which had acquired the broadcasting rights. In June 2009, the broadcaster prevailed and the automatic qualification of the competition winner remained in place. The general manager of 2009 League Cup winners Girondins Bordeaux, Alain Deveseleer, assessed the significance of the Coupe de la Ligue in this context, saying:

Also, according to a non-representative survey, almost two-thirds of French football fans believe that the League Cup is nothing more than "a consolation round for clubs that have stumbled in the league".

In September 2019, the LFP decided to hold the competition for the last time in the 2019/20 season, but has kept the back door open to "revive it at a later date".

Origins and mode of delivery

The FFF introduced the competition in 1991 - it is now organised by the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) - after a biennial predecessor, the Coupe de l'été (Summer Cup), had been held in the early 1980s. However, the League Cup was initially a bit of a shadowy existence during the summer break, with the larger clubs either not taking part or only sending their reserve teams. The Coupe de la Ligue only gained in sporting value when victory in this competition was upgraded to include qualification for the UEFA Cup (1994/95). At least the finals (now regularly played at the Stade de France) also attract large crowds: in 2007, the previous record (78,721 in 2005) was beaten by 79,702 paying spectators.

In the first rounds, the third and second division clubs were initially among themselves, while the first division clubs did not intervene until the round of the last 32 teams, which then left 12 lower division teams. Up to and including the quarter-finals, the League Cup was held before the winter break.
Otherwise, the League Cup has been played according to the "classic" cup format, which means in particular that from the round of 16 onwards, the fixtures are drawn from all the clubs still in the competition, without any seedings or pre-sorting, and only one match is played, at the end of which there must be a winner (even if it is through extra time and penalties) who then qualifies for the next round, while the loser is eliminated. Home advantage will also be determined by drawing lots for each match.

However, the president of the LFP, Frédéric Thiriez, had already brought up some changes to the mode in 2006: according to this, four clubs were to be seeded as "group heads" in future, after which it would be possible to dispense with draws altogether from the second round onwards, because - similar to World Cup finals - all matches would be fixed up to the semi-finals. Thieriez's proposal to give the two clubs directly qualified for the Champions League the bonus of not having to enter the competition until the round of 16 has been practised since 2007, although it too had met with fierce criticism in France, and not just from the "small" clubs.

The finals at a glance