EFL chief insists League Cup ‘not under threat’ from Champions League reforms

Changes are likely to come to the Champions League from 2024

Liverpool won the 2022 Carabao Cup (John Walton/PA) (PA Wire)

English Football League chief Rick Parry says he doesn’t believe the EFL Cup is “under threat” as a result of the Champions League reforms.

UEFA have agreed to expand the European competition from 32 team to 26 from 2024 which means more midweek dates before Christmas would need to be dedicated to the group stage. This could impact the EFL Cup format and Parry says they are fully prepared for what is to come.

“We are realistic,” Parry told BBC Sport. “We clearly know 2024 is coming. Uefa doesn’t really like League Cups. We are pretty much unique now in terms of major leagues.

“I don’t think the future of the competition is under threat. But it’s whether we look at the time-tabling of it. Whether, for example, we have to consider single leg semi-finals. Whether we have to look at the teams that clubs in Europe field.

“If discussions around the future of the EFL Cup are part of the broader discussion around redistribution and governance, so be it. But they can’t take place in isolation. They have to be part of the total package.”

And while Parry seems to have a positive view of the changes if they come into affect, comments made about the competition int he past could have fans worried.

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin, speaking in 2020, said the cup should be scrapped to make sure there wasn’t congestion of fixtures.

Speaking to ​The Times, Cefernin said: “The League Cup is off in France already. Only England remains. I think that everybody knows that it would be better for everyone if that were not played any more.

“But the problem is that, through that cup, you finance a lot of clubs that are quite disadvantaged, so I understand the problem.

“The English are also quite traditionalist, you like things that have been there for ages.”