2018 League Cup

[Jute]

Draw was made for the group stages of the League Cup tonight. Dons and other teams that have qualified for Europe do not have to enter until the knockout stage. Groups as follows:

 

 

North

 

 

Group A

 

Ross County

Dundee United

Arbroath

Elgin

Alloa

 

Group B

 

St Johnstone

Falkirk

Montrose

East Fife

Forfar

 

Group C

 

Hearts

ICT

Raith

Cowdenbeath

Cove Rangers

 

Group D

 

Dundee

Dunfermline

Stirling

Brechin

Peterhead

 

South

 

 

Group E

 

Partick

Morton

Albion

Ayr

Stenny

 

Group F

 

Hamilton

Livi

Berwick

Airdrie

Annan

 

Group G

 

Motherwell

QoS

Clyde

Edinburgh City

Stranraer

 

Group H

 

Kilmarnock

St Mirren

Dumbarton

Queens Park

Spartans

 

[Slim]

Cove v Cowdenbeath should be tasty.

[Jute]

Groups finish after Hearts v ICT today and draw to be made for 2nd round after today game. Teams that are through as follows:

 

 

Seeded teams:

 

Celtic

 

Aberdeen

 

Tribute Act

 

Hibs

 

Ayr United

 

Dunfermline

 

St Johnstone

 

Livingston/ICT

 

(if ICT get 2 points against Hearts, they will qualify as seeds and Livi go through as an unseeded team. If Hearts win or draw and Hearts get bonus point, then Livingston get the final seeded place)

 

 

 

non-seeded teams:

 

Ross County

 

Kilmarnock

 

Dundee

 

Motherwell

 

St Mirren

 

QOS

 

and 2 teams out of:  Partick/Livingston/Hearts/ICT that depends on the result tomorrow

 

 

[Jute]

2nd round draw

 

Livingston v Motherwell

 

Dundee v Ayr Utd

 

Dunfermline v Hearts

 

Kilmarnock v Rangers

 

Aberdeen v St Mirren

 

Partick Thistle v Celtic

 

Hibs v Ross County

 

Queen of the South v St Johnstone

 

Ties to be played 18th & 19th August although BT Sport suggested possibly 17th as well.

[manc_don]

Has there been much of a fuss kicked up about Hearts fielding an illegible player?  Would have thought given the teams just missed out on going through they should be under some sort of criticism.

[Jute]

Has there been much of a fuss kicked up about Hearts fielding an illegible player?  Would have thought given the teams just missed out on going through they should be under some sort of criticism.

 

A few folk questioned why only a 2 point deduction on radio but nothing really mentioned.

[Ten Caat]

If it had been any other team in that group fielding an ineligible player you can bet your bottom dollar it would have been the full 3 points docked. Making it just the 2 points made it still mathematically possible for Fartz to qualify providing they won both their remaining games (which you really would have expected them to do anyway given the relative financial superiority and both were at Tynecastle).

And with the draw they have got in the last 16 should expect a relatively easy passage into the quarters. These cheating bastards could just go all the way. Absolutely disgusting.

[RicoS321]

A few folk questioned why only a 2 point deduction on radio but nothing really mentioned.

 

Spartans were booted out of the Scottish cup in 2011 for fielding an illegible player after a mix up with player registration (the player had been with the club for years, but there was a date missing from a form or some shite).

 

I remember at the time saying that it shouldn't be possible for that to happen in 21st century, and that's even more the case in 2018. No team should be removed from a competition because of an administration error as it shouldn't be possible to make those errors - the process should have ironed out those issues.

 

Players should be registered on a database at the SPFL/SFA, which can be accessed online. Teams should submit their 20 or so man squad the day before a game online. This is checked against the database, with an immediate response if an individual is inelligble based on registration forms, suspensions etc. The referee is also sent this squad via his online account. Teams then submit their team lines one hour or so before the match. If any players not in the original squad are apparent on the team lines then the referee does not accept the team line-up and the player must be removed. The only way an inelligble player should be allowed to be fielded is if they disguise the player as someone else. It is so easy to set up something that would entirely prevent this. It's not acceptable in the 21st century for a team to be accidentally fielding a player that is inellgible. It's too easy to blame the club, but it's a failure at national level. Admin errors should not be possible, ambiguity shouldn't be allowed. Games or cup progress should not be decided on administrative and technical grounds (see Lech Poznan as another example), that is a disgrace to the sport and unfair on the supporters of any club. That should be the same whether its Hearts, Spartans or us. The game isn't about who's the best at filling out forms, and 21st century systems can completely prevent this with great ease.

 

Hearts will get beaten on sporting merit alone. Anything else is pathetic, and a failure of the entire game, not just one club.

[rocket_scientist]

Well said Rico. Folk are too quick to blame the club and side with the penalisers without taking time to consider all the possibilities. For example, why would Hearts want to cheat the system? Did they think they would get away with it? They would've known that the gamble of trying to squeeze in an illegible player would've had major repercussions although another failing of the authorities is a lack of fairness and consistency, their precedents being random (fines, disqualification, points deduction).

[Ten Caat]

The onus is on the club to ensure all their players are properly registered. Had the SFA f@cked up there woiuld have been an admission of this and no penalty levied.

Also Hearts have not appealed the decision......ergo they know they were at fault

[Guest kiriakovisthenewstrachan]

These cheating bastards could just go all the way. Absolutely disgusting.

 

This is a storm in a tea cup as far as I'm concerned.

 

Some will say rules are rules and all that nonsense but Hearts played an 18 year old who most people would not have heard of, it's not like they brought Lionel Messi off the bench and he scored a hat-trick.

 

Made no difference to the final result.  Madness if that merits being chucked out of the competition.

[RicoS321]

The onus is on the club to ensure all their players are properly registered. Had the SFA f@cked up there woiuld have been an admission of this and no penalty levied.

Also Hearts have not appealed the decision......ergo they know they were at fault

 

You've missed the point entirely.

 

There should be no mechanism whatsoever for a club to improperly register a player. There was no individual error at the SFA, it is a systemic issue. If I was designing a player registration system for Scottish fitba teams, then I could - very easily - set one up that ensured that no club could improperly register a player and then play them in a match. The process itself is at fault. As soon as Hertz named the player on their teamsheet, the referee should have immediately been able to see that the player was inelligeble. I cannot stress how easy it would/should be to design a process that allows this. It should never ever be possible for Hearts' mimimum wage admin clerk to potentially be responsible for them going out of the cup. It's not acceptable, and it's not football.

[Ten Caat]

Perhaps there shouldn't be but there is and the SFA haven't done anything obvious to remedy a situation that has reoccurred throughout the decades.

Perhaps my ire should be focussed on the authorities, we know it was a genuine mistake on Hearts' part. (And had it been us or celtic or sevco that had done it we would also have escaped lightly). You can rest assured had it been one of the diddy teams that had transgressed they would have copped the full penalty.

Also.....had this happened in the knockout stages the cop out would not have been available to them. Hearts would have forfeited the tie......

[RicoS321]

Oh aye, I completely agree that the punishment is different dependent on the club (although I think the punishment can just be a fine, so Hertz might still have got away with it in the knock out stages). It's just frustrating that nobody that is paid to cover our game is questioning how this can still happen in 21st century and fans are quick to jump on Hearts or whoever when they (should) all know that this could easily happen to their own club due to clerical error. It's the same dicks that go on about "the blazers" running our game, but fail to call them into question when the opportunity arises. I don't get why people, in general, are so quick to judgement and punishment. It's very much anti-sport. Hearts weren't attempting to cheat, they made a clerical error. Posnan were thrown out of "the biggest tournament in the world" for taking on a player in the last minute of a game they'd already won. On every occasion, sport loses.

[Jute]

Surprisingly Celtic v Partick and Kilmarnock v Tribute Act have been selected as the TV games for first round.

[RicoS321]

Surprisingly Celtic v Partick and Kilmarnock v Tribute Act have been selected as the TV games for first round.

 

On BBC Scotland yesterday, when reading the sports headlines, they said:

 

There are 3 all-premiership ties in the draw, with Celtic at home to Partick and Rangers travelling to Kilmarnock.

 

It's in-built into our impartial broadcaster. If they'd said: "with Kilmarnock playing Rangers in the pick of the ties" it would have been fine but that wasn't why they were doing it, it was implicit that these were the two teams that everyone cares about.

[Jute]

2nd round results so far.

 

Partick 1 3 Celtic FT

Aberdeen 4 0 St Mirren FT

Dundee 0 3 Ayr FT

Dunfermline 0 1 Hearts FT

Livingston 0 1 Motherwell FT

Queen of the South 2 4 St Johnstone AET

 

Tribute Act play Kilmarnock and Hibs play Ross County this afternoon.

 

Only shock so far is Ayr knocking out Dundee with Shankland netting 2. Worth a look?

 

Hopefully Ross County and Killie can also provide shocks today.

[Lencarl]

The draw for next round will take place after the Kilmarnock tie on BT TV. We can all guess who sevco will get for their home tie IF they get through today that is.

 

Don't care who we get next as long it is a home game

[RicoS321]

The draw for next round will take place after the Kilmarnock tie on BT TV. We can all guess who sevco will get for their home tie IF they get through today that is.

 

Doesn't really work when they got the hardest tie in the round this time though does it?

[Ten Caat]

Draw coming up shortly......I predict

 

Sevco v Hibs/Ross Co

 

Ayr v Aberdeen

 

Celtic v St Johnstone

 

Hearts v Motherwell

[Lencarl]

I predict

 

Sevco v Ayr

 

Aberdeen V Celtic

 

St Johnstone V Hearts

 

Motherwell V Hibs /Ross Co

 

 

[OxfordDon]

away to Hibs/ ross county

[rocket_scientist]

Easiest draw for OF.

 

Sevco v. Ayr

St J v. Celtic

Hearts v. Well

[Elgindon]

Hibs 2 v County 2 

[Lencarl]

There is only one team guaranteed to reach the semis and that is Sevco. No disrespect to Ayr.

 

While I am on the subject, why is BT Sport getting more like Rangers TV in their coverage of Sevco for a so called neutral Sport provider.

 

This happens every time Sevco play on TV regardless of who they are against (apart from Celtic).

 

Total disrespect for other clubs in the SPFL especially when you consider ALL matches on BT Sport cover Sevco or Celtic away from home every week for live TV.

 

This just seems to be just a Scottish thing with BT Sports.

 

In England clubs seem to get a fair crack of the whip regardless who is playing.