The Copa de la Liga (League Cup in Spanish) was a Spanish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

tournament created in 1982. Due to time constraints, saturation and club pressure, the competition only lasted four years, being cancelled in 1986. Winning the trophy helped two clubs to complete cup doubles:

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

with the

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

(1983) and

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

with the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

(1985). In all four finals, the team that played the second leg at home won the trophy.

History

The League Cup was promoted by the president of

, Josep Lluís Núñez, in order to create a new competition that would generate new economic income for the clubs, both in terms of box office and television rights. In 1986 the fourth and last edition was held. In 1987, the fifth edition was scheduled to be held with a new “final three” format (which would have replaced the

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España, also known as the Spanish Super Cup, is a super cup tournament in Football in Spain, Spanish football. Founded in 1982 Supercopa de España, 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2 ...

, which for this reason was not held in the 1987 or 1988 seasons), for which they were already classified.

(League champion),

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

(Cup champion) and

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

(champion of the “ intermediate league” of the “Playoff League”). The clubs finally agreed to cancel the competition due to the saturation of the match schedule, especially due to the strange League format of that 1986–87 season.

Format

The League Cup was a straight knock-out competition. All ties were played over two legs, home and away, with the team with the largest aggregate score progressing. The final also consisted of two games. If the aggregate score was tied after two legs of ninety minutes each, extra-time would be played. If that failed to separate the teams, a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

would determine the winner. Unlike the

, the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

was not applied.

Champions

Top goalscorers

Source:

Notes

References

External links

Spain – List of League Cup Finals
at

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Copa De La Liga National association football league cups Defunct football cup competitions in Spain 1982–83 in Spanish football cups 1983–84 in Spanish football cups 1984–85 in Spanish football cups 1985–86 in Spanish football cups Recurring sporting events established in 1983 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 1986 1983 establishments in Spain 1986 disestablishments in Spain History of football in Spain