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Pan-Great Britain Cups At Football

Pan-Great Britain Cups At Football

I do not support merging the Scottish, English and Welsh leagues. But I do support cross border cups on top of domestic and European football.

I do not want Scottish clubs to join the English leagues as people would think Scotland was part of England.

I do not want a British leagues, as Scottish clubs might not ever win any tier 1 trophies and all the domestic trophies Scottish sides have won in their history would be relegated to the status of non-league trophies. While all the trophies English teams have won would be seen as forerunners to the Great Britain trophies.

My preferred idea is to keep the Scottish, Welsh and English leagues but have cross border cups on top. Also the Republic of Ireland and Northern Irish club sides could enter also. But I realise that makes travel issues tougher.

Ideas could be;

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1) Bring back the Anglo-Scottish Cup, between all Scottish Premiership sides and all English Football League sides and some EPL sides not in Europe.

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2) Have a Great Britain Youth Cup. Between the winners of the Scottish and English Youth Cups.

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3) Have a Great Britain Premier Cup. A trophy between all Scottish Premiership sides, plus all EPL sides not in Europe, and 3 or 4 Welsh Cymru Premier sides.

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4) Merge the Scottish League Cup, English League Cup, and Welsh League Cup as a Great Britain League Cup. It could be a group stage or straight knockout trophy,

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5) Invite all Scottish Premiership sides not in Europe, plus selected Welsh Cymru Premier sides into the lower division EFL Trophy.

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6) Invite all Scottish Premiership and Scottish Championship sides not in Europe, plus all Welsh Cymru Premier sides into the non-league English FA Trophy.

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7) Have a Welsh Gold Cup. Containing all first team Welsh Cymru Premier sides, plus the second teams of Glasgow Celtic, Glasgow Rangers and all B teams of English Premier sides.

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8) Bring back the Coronation Cup that was last won by Glasgow Celtic.

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9) A Central Great Britain Cup - A trophy between Scottish Lowland League sides and non-league teams from Northern England.

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10) Have cross border trophies in women’s football.

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A) Invite Glasgow City, Glasgow Rangers and Glasgow Celtic as guests into the Women’s FA Cup or Women’s English League Cup. Celtic and Rangers would bring big supports for cross border games.

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B) Invite all Scottish and Welsh top tier sides as guests into one of the lower tier knockout cup trophies of English women’s football.

Defence of my idea

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1) People will say travel would be tough. But look at the trips they do in North American, Indian, Chinese, Australian and Russian sports leagues. Look at the trips teams do in UEFA competitions. A trip from Inverness to Plymouth is tough, but not as tough As New York to Miami.

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2) Some might say UEFA would not allow it. But my reply would be that Welsh and Northern Irish sides are allowed in the Scottish Challenge Cup as invited guests.

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3) Some will claim fixture congestion is an issue. But I disagree. League re-organisation, trophy re-organisation adding teams to trophies can be done without a significant increase in the number of games. For instance adding Scottish and Welsh teams to the EFL Trophy could be done without adding any games to the number of games English sides play. It just needs clever re-organisation of the trophies.

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4) It would not generate much money. That does not matter. It would add to the history and fun of teams. This would be like European football for teams. I am not suggesting adding Scottish and Welsh league sides to the EFL Trophy would turn it into the Champions League. But it would be fun cross border trips.

I think this would transform Welsh football. It would grow Welsh clubs to compete in European competition. It would be a fun addition to the season for Scottish sides. While it would do no harm to English football. Yet would allow them to help Scotland and Wales at little cost.

Thanks.