Football
What Is The National League Cup? New 32-Team Competition Launched In Collaboration With Premier League
Olly Taliku has worked with highly respected sports and gambling websites where he has produced hundreds of articles, as well as being published with Burton Albion and Chesterfield FC. At Burton Olly worked closely alongside the women's team, producing mainly matchday content including reports and interviews, while at Chesterfield he worked in a similar role but with the academy side, as well as some first team content. He also has experience as an accredited Premier League and EFL writer for Prost International where he worked during the 2021/22 season to produce matchday content as an on location reporter. Olly specialises in football as well as long form SEO content plus news, tips and betting but also produces content on basketball, baseball and American football.
Get to know Oliver Taliku betterPublished5 hours ago on September 19, 2024
The National League has launched a new competition in collaboration with the Premier League, where 32 teams will fight it out for the right to be crowned National League Cup champion.
What Is The National League Cup?
The National League Cup is a new competition that is set to launch in October this year, which aims to give younger players and EFL clubs more opportunities at a higher level.
National League clubs will keep all proceeds from matchday revenue including ticket sales in an initiative that looks to not only boost young player profiles, but also bolster lower level clubs’ income.
Chief Football Officer at the Premier League and one of the men at the forefront of the new idea, Tony Scholes, said: “We’re excited to launch this new competition in partnership with the National League.
“The competition will provide additional opportunities for young players in the under 17-21 age groups to gain valuable experience of playing against First Team opposition, something many of our current Premier League stars have experienced in their development.
“We’re pleased to be able to support in the operation of the competition and look forward to seeing the wider benefits it will bring to National League clubs.”
There is also a £1million prize pool available in the new cup competition, which has been funded by the Premier League in its inaugural campaign. Only National League sides can win a share of the £1million available.
Who Will Play In The National League Cup?
There are 32 teams that will take part in the cup each season, with the sides split up into four groups of eight for the first round of the competition.
16 Premier League 2 sides and 16 National League teams will take part in the cup, with four from each league placed in each group. See below for the 2024/25 National League Cup groups.
National League Cup groups 👇 pic.twitter.com/cQeQuVpqJg
— The Non-League Paper (@NonLeaguePaper) September 19, 2024
When Is The National League Cup?
The 2024 National League Cup gets underway in just over two weeks, at the beginning of October.
- Group stage match round 1: 1 – 2 October 2024
- Group stage match round 2: 5 – 6 November 2024
- Group stage match round 3: 3 – 4 December 2024
- Group stage match round 4: 21 – 22 January 2025
- Quarter-finals: 5 – 6 February 2025
- Semi-finals: 11 – 12 March 2025
- Final: 1 – 2 April 2025