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National League Cup (football)
Association football tournament in England
Association football tournament in England
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| current | 2025–26 National League Cup |
| logo | National_League_Cup_logo.png |
| founded | 1979 (original) |
| 2024 (revived) | |
| number of teams | 32 |
| region | England |
| current champions | Leeds United U21 |
| (2024–25) | |
| most successful club | Leeds United U21 |
| (1 title) |
2024 (revived) (2024–25) (1 title) The National League Cup is an annual association football competition in England. The National League Cup is open to clubs playing in the National League and, since its revival in 2024, professional under-21 teams playing in the Premier League 2.
History
The competition was formed for the inaugural season of what was then called the Alliance Premier League, in 1979–80 and existed for twenty-two seasons before being axed at the end of the 2000–01 season. It was briefly reformed for the 2004–05 season, in the form of the Conference Challenge Cup, but following a poor response it was again agreed not to renew the competition for the next season.
With the transfer of sponsorship of the Conference to Blue Square for the start of the 2007–08 season two seasons later, the re-introduction of the competition was announced, scheduled to commence that year. On 23 June 2009, the Conference League Cup's sponsor, Setanta's GB division, went into administration and ceased broadcasting.
In the 2024–25 season, the competition was revived as the 32-team National League Cup, with 16 National League clubs and 16 under-21 teams from Premier League 2.
Format
The competition was a knockout tournament with pairings drawn at random – like the FA Cup there is a minimal form of seeding, in that members of the (higher-level) Conference National entered together at a later stage in the tournament, and the draw for each round took place after the completion of the round before.
The revived edition for 2024–25 consists of four groups of four National League and four Premier League 2 teams each, with each National League team playing four home games against the under-21 teams in their group. The top 2 teams from each group advance to the quarter-finals.
Winners
| Season | Winner | Runner-up | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bob Lord Challenge Trophy | |||||||||||
| 1979–80 | Northwich Victoria | Altrincham | |||||||||
| 1980–81 | Altrincham | Kettering Town | |||||||||
| 1981–82 | Weymouth | Enfield | |||||||||
| 1982–83 | Runcorn | Scarborough | |||||||||
| 1983–84 | Scarborough | Barnet | |||||||||
| 1984–85 | Runcorn | Maidstone United | |||||||||
| 1985–86 | Stafford Rangers | Barnet | |||||||||
| last=Dunk | first=Peter | title=Rothmans Football Yearbook 1987–88 | page=881 | publisher=Queen Anne Press | date=20 August 1987 | url=https://archive.org/details/rothmansfootball00lond | url-access=registration | isbn=978-0-3561435-4-5 | access-date=29 April 2020}} | Kettering Town | Hendon |
| 1987–88 | Horwich RMI | Weymouth | |||||||||
| 1988–89 | Barnet | Hyde United | |||||||||
| 1989–90 | Yeovil Town | Kidderminster Harriers | |||||||||
| 1990–91 | Sutton United | Barrow | |||||||||
| 1991–92 | Wycombe Wanderers | Runcorn | |||||||||
| 1992–93 | Northwich Victoria | Wycombe Wanderers | |||||||||
| 1993–94 | Macclesfield Town | Yeovil Town | |||||||||
| 1994–95 | Bromsgrove Rovers | Kettering Town | |||||||||
| 1995–96 | Bromsgrove Rovers | Macclesfield Town | |||||||||
| 1996–97 | Kidderminster Harriers | Macclesfield Town | |||||||||
| 1997–98 | Morecambe | Woking | |||||||||
| 1998–99 | Doncaster Rovers | Farnborough Town | |||||||||
| 1999–2000 | Doncaster Rovers | Kingstonian | |||||||||
| 2000–01 | Chester City | Kingstonian | |||||||||
| Conference Cup | |||||||||||
| 2004–05 | Woking | Stalybridge Celtic | |||||||||
| Setanta Shield | |||||||||||
| 2007–08 | Aldershot Town | Rushden & Diamonds | |||||||||
| 2008–09 | AFC Telford United | Forest Green Rovers | |||||||||
| National League Cup | |||||||||||
| 2024–25 | Leeds United U21 | Sutton United |
Source: (note: source does not list finals for 1986–87 to 1988–89)
References
References
- Oliver, Pete. (7 June 2004). "Conference cup is restored". BBC Sport.
- (2007-07-03). "Setanta Shield announced with league match draw date". BBC Sport.
- Ziegler, Martin. (23 June 2009). "Setanta enters administration". The Independent.
- James Robinson. (23 June 2009). "Setanta goes off air with loss of more than 200 jobs". guardian.co.uk.
- "Premier League and National League announce National League Cup".
- Dunk, Peter. (20 August 1987). "Rothmans Football Yearbook 1987–88". Queen Anne Press.
- "History". Football Conference.
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