Much has been made of MLS’s decision to pull out, be dragged back in, then mostly back out of the US Open Cup. If you have not been following this drama and need more sadness in your life, check out Beyond the 90’s coverage.* But in summary, MLS is working hard to try and kill one of soccer’s oldest and most important tournaments, one that kept the game alive in the US for decades when it was struggling to take hold.
We cannot however consider this situation outside of a global context. In major European federations, the seemingly sacred domestic cup competitions are being tweaked to address the needs of the largest clubs. England is slowly eliminating replays and making other changes pushed by the Premier League. Italy and other leagues are moving cup championships around the world to make more money. Federations are seeking any way possible to make additional money off of their cups while the large clubs are looking for ways to spend minimal effort to win them.
These changes are bad for the game. While fans are looking at various places for support to preserve their competitions, one place they should not look is their teams’ managers. That’s because managers have the most to lose from cup competitions and, generally speaking, the least to gain.
This goes against our instinct of managers wanting to win as many trophies as possible so why can we not rely on them for support?
Let’s start with why we think managers benefit from domestic cups. First, managers keep their jobs when they win, especially when they win trophies. The more opportunities to hoist a trophy, the better their chance to remain employed. Thus managers should favor cup competitions as it allows for resume boosts and more job security.
Which is correct except that for many managers, cup competitions are more likely to be career detriments than enhancers. Consider managers whose clubs are in the top half of the table. When facing lower league competition, they get no benefit from defeating these clubs; rather the pressure is on them to win and win convincingly, especially clubs further down the pyramid. In a five-round cup competition, you’re only likely to face a club or two at the same “level” as you. Every other time, you’re the big bad team the fans are rooting against. Yes, you are known as the manager who won a cup if you do win but there is always the chance you are known as the manager who lost to Part Time Engineers FC.
There’s also the schedule issue. Going up and down the federation, there are only a few teams who benefit from a cup run. Those teams at the top of the division like cup runs but their priority is winning their league/winning promotion. The same is true for the other side - if you’re in the relegation zone a trophy for the season feels good but you’re still potentially down a division with all the problems that entails. For clubs mid-table, a trophy is a nice mark for your season when you can’t win the league, but this is where logistics come in. Many cup competitions are starting to schedule mid-week games which stretches your resources. Payouts are less and the strain on your players increases. With less money coming in and the stress on your roster increasing, the glory of a cup run sometimes seems greater than the actual competition.
Knowing all this and seeing that the risk for many managers is greater than the reward, quietly my guess is many top division club managers are not exactly fighting the changes to their domestic cups. In public, they may make statements to appease the fans, but having fewer matches is probably something they would welcome. It is the lower league and younger managers with thinner resumes who are the biggest advocates of these tournaments, but their voices carry little weight.
There is one way I see domestic cups gain the support of managers, and that is if they begin to emulate the NBA and NWSL. In-season tournaments, separated from league play and marketed as something different, are a new way to draw attention to the sport and break up the monotony of long American sports seasons. If the domestic cups became a separate, consolidated tournament that is a break from the league, that may make them more attractive to managers.
Until then, don’t be surprised if more and more managers demur when asked about changes to their fans’ favorite tournaments.
*The sadness comes from the subject, not the excellent writing and reporting on the site.