Is a 'British' League Cup the way forwards for England's most derided competition?

Wolves v Crawley, Mansfield v Blackburn, Carlisle v Port Vale. These are a sample of the mouthwatering Tuesday evening ties on 9th August which will kick off the first stages of the crudely retitled (although completely unchanged) English Football League Cup. I’ve been regularly informed by a Middlesbrough fan that the League Cup is a very significant trophy. That may be partially explained by the fact that we were both present for Bolton’s defeat to Boro at the 2004 Final in Cardiff but I would be surprised to find many others with nothing but praise for a competition derided by many as Mickey Mouse. The FA Cup is heralded as the greatest domestic cup competition in the world whilst the League Cup is often reduced to being a run out for the reserves. It exists but nobody really respects it for what it wants to be worth. Premier League teams rarely field strong sides and axing the cup is one of the first possibilities brought up by critics when the topic of fixture congestion is once again rears its head. My proposal is not to finish the tired competition but the revive it, and turn it into a British League Cup.

The League Cups in England and Scotland would combine and incorporate English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish teams into the competition. A level of integration between the football associations of the union would be interesting whilst although more often than not it would be the English teams who are victorious, big ties could bring in much needed revenue for Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish teams and offer fans a greater variety in the games which they can go and watch their team participate in. Over the past few years within Glasgow there have been increasing calls for Celtic (and previously Rangers before it all went to pot) to be brought into the English league system due to their dominance of the Scottish Premier League and this would be an opportunity for the strong Scottish teams to prove themselves in a more competitive tournament without having to completely uproot the entire football system across the UK.

As the standard of football within the various associations varies and as a result there would be selection of the teams which compete and when they enter the competition in order to avoid complete walkovers and too many rounds for the better teams. My proposition for which teams can enter and the respective entry points for the competition can be found here:

The novelty of such a competition could wear off quickly (particularly with possible/probable English dominance) but changes of this sort would at least be an attempt to breathe life into a trophy which is rapidly becoming of little interest to both clubs and supporters alike.