WSL Rebrands League Cup as Subway Players Cup to Ease Calendar Congestion | OneFootball

With concerns over an increasingly congested women’s football calendar, the Subway League Cup has been renamed the Subway Players Cup and revamped with player welfare at the heart of its new format.

Fixtures are drawn by region, and every team is guaranteed six matches, giving rising talent the opportunity to show themselves. Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City will sit out this season’s competition to reduce player load while competing in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.

As before, the competition brings together BWSL and BWSL2 clubs across two stages: a league phase followed by knockouts. In the league phase, all 23 teams share a single table, each playing three home and three away fixtures against regional rivals.

Zarah Al-Kudcy, Chief Revenue Officer at WSL Football said: “We wanted to create something that provided a platform to provide meaningful playing minutes for young and fringe players and to address disparity in playing opportunities across the leagues without compromising our player welfare principles in an increasingly busy women’s calendar.”

The draw has thrown up some unfamiliar fixtures for Manchester United, who face six clubs in the Northern section including Burnley, Newcastle and Durham.

Manchester United player Fridolina Rolfö said: “Some of those teams we haven’t played before so we will have to prepare ourselves for those games.”

“Let’s see how we can handle being favourites. But I can tell there are many other good teams there as well so it will not be an easy one.”

For Burnley, freshly promoted to WSL2, the competition offers an opportunity to test themselves against top-flight opposition.

“To face some of the best players in the world will be a great experience for us,” said Burnley’s Emma Siddall, who made her senior debut for Manchester City against Blackburn in this competition, and now finds an old rivalry reignited against Manchester United.

“Playing against a big team like Man United will always bring something a bit different to the table that I’m not used to, but it’s important not to put too much pressure on ourselves and face it for what it is on the day,” she added.

Jordan Nobbs, a five-time winner of this competition, said her team Newcastle United is excited to compete for a trophy that “everyone wants to win.”

“It’s what players thrive off, being in those competitions, and I think with this format there’s a lot more opportunity and a lot more game time to play each other,” Nobbs said.

“I think whenever we have played Sunderland and Durham they have been two of our biggest tests and they’re both derby games. Obviously United are a huge team with brilliant players so that will be a test but it’s where we want to go. I think it’s a great opportunity for us to play them and see where we’re at.”

The competition kicks off on Wednesday 23rd September at 7pm. Find the full list of fixtures here.