Chairman calls for major shake-up in Cup
Thursday, 10 January 2002 16:45Ipswich chairman David Sheepshanks has called for Irish and Scottish clubs to be allowed compete in the Worthington Cup. Speaking at the Football Expo trade fair in Cannes, Sheepshanks said he believes that allowing Irish and Scottish teams to enter the competition would freshen it up.
"I am a great supporter of the Worthington Cup, but if there is some expansion of this sort it might capture the public imagination," he explained. However, he added that allowing big clubs to opt out of the tournament would lead to major problems in terms of sponsorship and television interest.
Sheepshanks also put forward the idea of introducing a two-week winter break into the Premiership programme. "I am not advocating not playing on Boxing Day or New Year's Day because that's an institution but a break is needed. We have a number of overseas players on our staff and they cannot believe they are expected to play all these games in mid-winter while their old colleagues back home are going off for a break," he pointed out.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
