🏆 Coppa Italia: time for a format change? 🤔 European comparison | OneFootball

Juve, Inter, Napoli, and Atalanta advance to the quarter-finals thanks to victories over Udinese, Venezia, Cagliari, and Genoa, with matches strictly played in front of their home crowd. 

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Except for the Italian champions, who had to resort to penalties to get the better of Pisacane's team, the other occasions were little more than a walk in the park, especially for Inter. Against a heavily reshuffled and already inferior Venezia, the match for Inter's second string seemed little more than a training session. 

In the post-match, the coach of the orange and green team, Giovanni Stroppa, admitted the limits of his team, but did not fail to highlight a detail: "What is the point of playing the Coppa Italia away for the small team? The regulation is this, but maybe with the home effect it could have been different...".

A thought shared by many, but it seems destined to remain just that. But how are the other national cups structured?

🇮🇹 Coppa Italia

The Coppa Italia features 44 teams: 20 from Serie A, 18 from Serie B, and 6 from Serie C. All matches are knockout rounds and the path to the end of the competition is as follows:

The TV rights for the Coppa Italia are constantly increasing and in the latest tender were sold for 58 million per edition. The winning team, between the prize and various revenues for reaching the final, earns about 7.1 million euros.

The 4.4 million prize offered by the League is significantly higher than the FA Cup, which is 2 million pounds. However, the revenue from television rights for the latter competition is significantly greater.

🏴 FA Cup

The FA Cup features over 700 teams: from the ninth English league (with possible inclusion from the tenth, in case of forfeit) up to the Premier League.

The TV rights for the FA Cup starting this year should yield 76 million euros per year.

🇫🇷 Coupe de France

The Coupe de France has an even more "extreme" system than the FA Cup, compared to the Italian version. The number of teams is chosen annually based on those that can register.

Teams from the 4th and 3rd levels enter the competition when lower-level teams are still the clear majority.

This scheme explains why almost every year Ligue 2 (or higher) teams go to play at the home of a team from a former French colony.

Despite the charm of such progression, television coverage is limited and the value of TV rights is just over 22 million per year, less than half of the Coppa Italia.

🇩🇪 DFB-Pokal

The DFB-Pokal has a mixed system compared to those seen previously. It features 64 teams:

Despite the smaller number of clubs involved, all teams face each other from the first round, which takes place in August.

The annual value of TV rights should be over 60 million euros.

🇪🇸 Copa del Rey

In Spain, there is the Copa del Rey, which recently changed its format (since 2019). It features 116 teams:

It immediately plays as a knockout and always on the field of the lower category team (in the case of the same category, it is played on the field of the first team drawn).

La Liga teams enter the game from the second round with a completely random draw, the only ones excluded are those that qualify for the Super Cup and enter from the third round.

A system far from that of the Coppa Italia.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.

📸 Paolo Bruno - 2019 Getty Images