THESeasons pass, and there is a question that continues to persistently hover over Portuguese football. After all, what is the purpose of the League Cup, a competition that is now 20 years old, but which continues to be treated with the greatest possible contempt, its organization taking on complete surrealism?
The League Cup has gone through ‘thousands’ formats, but perhaps none as aberrant as the current one, where the objective is, without a shadow of a doubt, for the so-called ‘big ones’ to reach the ‘final four’, solely and exclusively to maximize profits, without even the slightest respect for those who manage to break the logic of this plan.
This is the case of Vitória SC, who, last season, eliminated FC and Sporting, before defeating Sporting de Braga, in the final, to lift the trophy for the first time in history. What better reward for such an achievement than not giving him the opportunity to compete in the next edition, with the chance of renewing the title?
This is, perhaps, the most serious of the ‘holes’ in the planning of this moribund competition, where teams are even allowed to play with a mere 48 hours of rest between games, as happened with Sporting, who faced Académico de Viseu, for the I League, on Sunday, and Marítimo, for the League Cup, on Tuesday.
The competition is organized by Liga Portugal, but the inconsistencies spread to the Portuguese Football Federation. More specifically, to the Disciplinary Council, which allowed Jhon Durán to face Gil Vicente, after having received an expulsion order (whether you agree with it or not), during the visit to Santa Clara.
It will also, certainly, be a coincidence that this same body has decided to apply the penalty of banning the sectors corresponding to the Organized Groups of FC Porto Supporters, precisely, in this competition, in what can only be interpreted as a sign that it does not count for ‘totobola’.
The League Cup had everything to be a useful competition for Portuguese football. A competition that, although not having the same importance as the I League and the Portuguese Cup, would of course encourage the launch of young Portuguese players and, at the same time, give clubs other than the usual ones the chance to win in the sporting and financial sector.
Instead, it is nothing more than a vanity fair, a way of overloading an already saturated calendar, without anyone truly having anything to gain from it, except whoever organizes it, who, invariably, will arrange a new light show to beautify the end of January.
However, the time will come when the clubs will have to sit down at the table and decide what they truly want from this League Cup, that is, something that can benefit someone other than the usual customers or the continuation of total futility, who knows, in a Saudi Arabia of this life. And, if the conclusion involves the second option, there will be no alternative but to put it down once and for all, for the good of all.
