Tottenham: Thomas Frank urges major Carabao Cup change to stop 'boring' teams winning | OneFootball

Spurs boss wants the Premier League to pay off the EFL

Thomas Frank has called for the Carabao Cup to scrap the two-legged semi-finals, suggesting the Premier League should pay the EFL if necessary.

Should that happen, the first leg will be played on the week starting January 12, with the return fixture in early February.

That second leg would take place for Spurs in between Premier League matches against Manchester City and Manchester United.

Despite increasing concerns over the workload on players, the Carabao Cup has stuck with the two-legged semi-finals in recent seasons. That only changed during the 2020-21 campaign due to fixture congestion caused by Covid.

Frank was involved in that, when his Brentford side were beaten by Jose Mourinho’s Spurs in a one-off match.

We don’t want the same boring teams that are winning - of course, except for Spurs - so skip one semi-final

Thomas Frank

The Dane wants a return to that format and believes it would create more variety in the teams reaching the final. Aside from Newcastle lifting the trophy last season, only Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool have won the competition in the past decade.

“There should only be one semi-final,” Frank said. “I said it at Brentford, that’s why I’m very happy to say it again.

“Two reasons. For the smaller clubs, if you want to beat a bigger club it’s much, much easier over one game. So [if] we really don’t want the same boring teams that are winning - of course except for Spurs - then we need to skip one semi-final.

“For everyone else that plays so many games, it should only be one. If it’s about money, then someone needs to fix it. If it’s Premier League paying money to the EFL, because as far as I understand it, it’s because of that.

“So someone fix it that knows more about this than me. It should be very, very easy.”