What have the Milk Marketing Board, Littlewoods, Rumbelows, Coca-Cola, Worthington’s, Molson Coors, Capital One and Carabao got in common?
This might seem like a list of unconnected organisations when in fact each company has sponsored the League Cup at some stage between 19981 and this year.
The competition comes well down the pecking order of the big team’s targets for the season. However, the two most successful clubs in English football have won the most League Cups.
Liverpool have won the competition 8 times and Manchester United share second place with Aston Villa with five wins but have been the losing finalist one more time.
The winners of the League Cup qualify for the Europa League and the winners of that competition get a place in the Champions League.
That means Leicester’s home tie against Liverpool on Tuesday could be the start of a process by which one of the clubs plays in the Champions League the season after next.
Leicester can make home advantage pay and embark on a journey this season which culminates with them winning the League Cup for the fourth time:
It’s the second half of September but the cricket season is far from over. England and West Indies are playing in five One day Internationals from tomorrow until a week on Friday.
England won the Test series but West Indies won the one T20 international last Friday night. They are better in the shorter formats of the game than 5 day matches.
Players are only selected for Tests if they are playing in domestic first class cricket and many of the better players appear in T20 franchise tournaments around the world.
West Indies can win the 50 over series against England starting this week.
Ayr stages its biggest Flat meeting from Thursday and the highlight is the Ayr Gold Cup on Saturday. Ahead of final declarations assessing the race is difficult. Johnny Barnes looks a good bet and the horse is named after a very good footballer who rapped on World In Motion, England’s 1990 World Cup song!
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