There could be wholesale changes coming to both major domestic cups in England soon with amendments to the FA Cup and League Cup on the agenda at a Premier League shareholders meeting on Wednesday.
According to The Times, there are to be two main topics of discussion regarding the futures of both historic competitions.
Firstly, Premier League clubs will look at the feasibility of scrapping third and fourth round replays in the FA Cup.
The top division teams currently enter the cup in the third round and with fifth round and quarter-final replays having been brought to a halt in recent years, the consensus amongst most Premier League clubs is that the abolition of replays in the earlier rounds would go some way to tackling the fixture congestion issue that they face.
There had been hopes that third and fourth round games could be completed in extra-time or by penalty shootouts this season, but the FA has yet to make any comment in favour of this.
The most radical change comes in the League Cup, however.
Clubs will openly discuss the possibility of teams that qualify for European competition to either field their Under 21 team or not enter the competition altogether at tomorrow’s meeting.
Should this occur, seven teams will not play first-team members of their squad in what is currently the Carabao Cup.
These potential changes would not come into place until 2024 in an effort to combat a pile up of fixtures upon the implementation of the new Uefa Champions League format which will see even more games in European competition for the continent’s elite teams.
