Domestic cups are becoming dinosaurs

In England, there are similarities these days with the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, with the modern joke going among fans of the bigger clubs that if you win them you always wanted to, and if you don’t, well, you had bigger fish to fry.

Mauricio Pochettino was in the news this week after Tottenham Hotspur were knocked out of both the Carabao Cup and FA Cup in a matter of days, saying finishing in the top four in the English Premier League, and qualifying for the Uefa Champions League is more important than winning a trophy.

Well-regarded European journalist Raphael Honigstein pointed out on Twitter that you get just £6.6 million for winning the FA Cup, while you get an estimated £70 million just for making the last-16 of the Champions League in 2018/19, so Pochettino’s statement does make total financial sense.

Spurs are not a side that can compete financially with the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City, and Pochettino has done an excellent job, even if it remains a trophyless job.

It wasn’t always this way with the FA Cup, of course. It was regarded as one of the most important, if not the most, domestic cup finals in world football, but the sheer volume of games that teams have to play these days has seen the competition fade into the background. For teams like Chelsea and Manchester City, there is still an importance in lifting trophies like the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, but they have the financial clout for it to matter.

The situation in South Africa is slightly different, simply because the prize money on offer for the Champions League is not as attractive, even with a 2017 price hike. The winner of Africa’s Champions League now gets US$2.5 million (R34 million), with the prize money for the winner of this year’s Nedbank Cup increased to R7 million. But one also has to factor in the cost of travelling all over the continent, with clubs in Caf competitions having to fund themselves, certainly a major problem for teams with lower budgets than Pirates or Sundowns.

For Pirates and Sundowns, one feels, succeeding in Africa, and perhaps sacrificing the Nedbank Cup in turn, is more about prestige than anything else. The Buccaneers and Masandawana are the two sides who have really embraced playing the continental club game, and they are to be commended for it. In the end, of course, it boils down to results. If either win the Champions League, or even the Absa Premiership, then the regret of an early exit from the Nedbank Cup will be virtually non-existent. There will even be those who claim playing less matches helped their success.

If they don’t go far in the Champions League, or if they miss out on the domestic title, they will look a little foolhardy. Such are the fine margins in this game, but one understands if coaches like Pitso Mosimane appear non-committal with regards to South Africa’s premier cup competition.

All that remains is for me to again encourage our readers to take part in Phakaaathi’s Private Fantasy League, for a chance to win fantastic monthly prizes. All you have to do is follow the rules in the advert on Page 7 of this week’s Phakaaathi supplement.

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