The Full Members' Cup was an association football cup competition held in

English football Association football is the most popular sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game. With over 40,000 association f ...

from 1985 to 1992. It was also known under its sponsored names of the Simod Cup from 1987 to 1989 and the Zenith Data Systems Cup from 1989 to 1992.Full Members Cup overview and finals at FCHD
/ref> The competition was created after the 1985 Heysel Stadium disaster, when English clubs were banned from

European competition The European Competition is a student competition in which students of all ages submit creative, artistic, or written pieces of work on the activities of the European Union. Tendered by European Movement Germany, it is the oldest student competition ...

, as an additional competition for clubs in the top two English League divisions. The competition's name refers to the clubs that were Full Members of

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

, with full voting rights; teams from the lower two divisions were Associate Members and were only eligible for the

Associate Members' Cup The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Lea ...

(now known as the

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL L ...

). The initial Full Members' Cup did not include the six teams that had qualified for 1985–86 European competitions, as these played in the English Super Cup instead. While the European ban of English clubs was partially lifted for 1990–91, and fully lifted for 1991–92, the Full Members' Cup survived through the end of 1991–92, its seventh season. The competition was then cancelled the following season when the old

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

was replaced by the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

. Seven finals took place between 1986 and 1992. Blackburn Rovers and

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spell ...

were the only

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

teams to win the Cup. Chelsea and Nottingham Forest were the most successful teams in the competition, with both of them winning it twice.

Participants

The competition was open to all teams from the top two levels of the English Leagues, namely the First and

Second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ea ...

Divisions. The six First Division teams that qualified for 1985–86 European play were invited to the English Super Cup tournament rather than the Full Members' Cup. Some eligible teams chose not to compete in the tournament in a particular year, while four teams in the First Division throughout the seven seasons of the tournament never entered the competition –

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostl ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

and

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

. Details of numbers of teams competing in each of the seasons:Old Cup Competitions/Full Members Cup at Statto.com
* 1985–86: 21 teams – 5 (of 16, with 6 in Super Cup) from Division 1 and 16 (of 22) from Division 2 * 1986–87: 36 teams – 14 (of 22) from Division 1 and all 22 from Division 2 * 1987–88: 40 teams – 17 (of 21) from Division 1 and all 23 from Division 2 * 1988–89: 40 teams – 16 (of 20) from Division 1 and all 24 from Division 2 * 1989–90: 37 teams – 13 (of 20) from Division 1 and all 24 from Division 2 * 1990–91: 39 teams – 15 (of 20) from Division 1 and all 24 from Division 2 * 1991–92: 41 teams – 18 (of 22) from Division 1 and 23 (all but

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

) from Division 2

Finals

Second Division members are in ''italics''. Source:

Notes

References

External links

''When Saturday Comes'' article on the Full Members' Cup - (on web.archive.org - original link dead)
{{Full Members' Cup Defunct English Football League competitions Defunct football cup competitions in England 1985 establishments in England 1992 disestablishments in England Recurring sporting events established in 1985 Recurring events disestablished in 1992