Today marks another kicking for the poor League Cup

In all sports, there is a certain amount of tradition that must be stuck too for pure nostalgia based reasons.

However, in all of these sports, tradition takes something of a battering when the big £ sign is dangled out in front of them.

An example most pertinent in this is football where everything from terracing to 3pm kick offs have changed since the advent of the Sky $, some times for the better, some times for the worse.

But one tradition that has changed this season, starting with today, is the schedule for the League Cup (or Capital One Cup to give it's correct name now), although it would appear not for monetary reasons.

Fans of bigger clubs may not be aware of this tradition, but for fans of clubs in the second tier and lower, there is an exact way the season should start.

The first weekend of the season is a league game, followed by a tie in the first round of the League Cup on a Tuesday or Wednesday and then another league game the weekend after.

However, this season, the first round of the League Cup starts today (before the Football League season) and ties continue on tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday this week.

The reason behind the switch appears not for monetary reasons as none of the games are televised as far as I can make out and, with the Olympics ongoing for the Saturday and Sunday at least, one would imagine the crowds are hardly going to be bumper too, even more so with the overexposure of football this summer.

The Football League season starts on the same day as the Premier League season this year as that tends to be the way when there is a major international competition during the summer which suggests the League Cup would be starting before the league games kick off anyway.

But the reason for shifting some of the games forward to the weekend rather than midweek appears to be that clubs wanted more preparation time for the start of their league campaigns.

The change in fixture times was authorised by the Football League, who run both the cup and league competition of course.

In a competition which takes a kicking from the larger clubs who field largely reserve teams, this is something of a even lower ebb when the smaller clubs prioritise the league so blatantly over this particular cup competition.

They have every right to do so of course, even more so than the way the larger clubs treat the competition, as they have less of a chance of winning the competition.

But still, another nail into the coffin of the competition perhaps?

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