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Cup of the North


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I was wondering if we could make use of Saturdays in July to give the Scottish teams playing in Europe some competitve football, close to home, but with some new fixtures that would appeal to fans. It seems to me that a British Cup wouldn't be too good for fans and teams from a travelling point of view, and friendlies don't really give any preparation for our teams at all.

If you had the 4 teams representing Scotland in Europe and the 4 best available from the north of England (i.e. Yorks-Lancs and north) from the English Premiership/Championship, you could have some big clubs and interesting new fixtures that fans can actually get to. It may be too early in the season for the Premiership clubs and the big'uns wouldn't be interested anyway, but you have some big clubs from the Championship (such as Leeds, Sheff. Wed, Middlesbrough)...I suppose the appeal to the English teams would be playing against the Old Firm, possible derbies that they don't normally see, and Premiership-Championship clashes...

For example, 2 from each country in 2 groups of 4. Teams play once, home or away, giving 3 consecutive Saturday games in July per team. Then the group winners play in a final on the last Saturday in July, at one of their home grounds, with a healthy away allocation. In time, you might get a lot more interest from clubs in the north of England if, say, you had one the Old Firm in each group, Everton and Newcastle from the Premiership, Leeds and Sheff. Wed from the Championship, etc.

I'd love to see a proper Cup of the North, making use of the weekends in July for a 16-team knock-out tournamnent, including the best 4 Scottish sides (or the top 6, to give the split some more meaning), the best of Northern Ireland and the rest from the English leagues based on merit.

I think there'd be a real buzz about a pre-season, July Cup of the North with all of the derbies that it could throw up in England and new cross-border fixtures that fans could get too without too much bother....you could even have 4 groups of 4 (playing as above) to give the guaranteed fixtures that a knock-out competition doesn't deliver, with group winners playing in semi-finals and a final at, say, Hampden or St.James's Park on the first weekend in August....

Er, any takers?

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So what you are saying is a pre-season friendly competition which could be organised by the clubs if they wanted to anyway. Assuming we could get 4 willing English clubs to play, when there season does not start till later, you are now forcing Scottish clubs into these friendlies?

Do you actually think before you start typing?

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