Founded | 1985 |
---|---|
Abolished | 1992 |
Number of teams | 41 (1991–92) |
Last champions | Nottingham Forest (2nd title) |
Most successful club(s) | Chelsea Nottingham Forest (2 titles) |
The Full Members' Cup was an association football cup competition held in English football from 1985 to 1992. It was also known under its sponsored names of the Simod Cup from 1987 to 1989 and the Zenith Data Systems Cup from 1989 to 1992. [1]
The competition was created after the 1985 Heysel Stadium disaster, when English clubs were banned from European competition, as an additional competition for clubs in the top two English League divisions. [2] The competition's name refers to the clubs that were Full Members of the Football League, with full voting rights; teams from the lower two divisions were Associate Members and were only eligible for the Associate Members' Cup (now known as the EFL Trophy). The initial Full Members' Cup did not include the six teams that had qualified for 1985–86 European competitions, as these played in the Super Cup instead. [3]
While the European ban of English clubs was partially lifted for 1990–91, and fully lifted for 1991–92, the Full Members' Cup survived through the end of 1991–92, its seventh season. The competition was then cancelled the following season when the Football League First Division was superseded by the Premier League as the top division.
Seven finals took place between 1986 and 1992. Blackburn Rovers and Reading were the only Second Division teams to win the cup.
Chelsea and Nottingham Forest were the most successful teams in the competition, with both of them winning it twice.
The competition was open to all teams from the top two levels of the English Leagues, namely the First and Second Divisions. The six First Division teams that qualified for 1985–86 European play were invited to the English Super Cup tournament rather than the Full Members' Cup. [3]
Some eligible teams chose not to compete in the tournament in a particular year, while four teams in the First Division throughout the seven seasons of the tournament never entered the competition – Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.
Details of numbers of teams competing in each of the seasons: [4]
Second Division members are in italics. [1]
Season | Winner | Score | Runner-up |
---|---|---|---|
1985–86 | Chelsea | 5–4 | Manchester City |
1986–87 | Blackburn Rovers | 1–0 | Charlton Athletic |
1987–88 | Reading [a] | 4–1 | Luton Town |
1988–89 | Nottingham Forest | 4–3 ( a.e.t. ) | Everton |
1989–90 | Chelsea | 1–0 | Middlesbrough |
1990–91 | Crystal Palace | 4–1 ( a.e.t. ) | Everton |
1991–92 | Nottingham Forest | 3–2 ( a.e.t. ) | Southampton |
The English Football League Trophy, officially known as Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and U-21 teams from Premier League and EFL Championship.
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. The club's motto is "Arte et Labore", meaning "By Skill and Hard Work" in Latin. They have a long-standing rivalry with nearby club Burnley, with whom they contest the East Lancashire derby.
The Football League Super Cup was a one-off football club competition held in England in the 1985–86 season. It was organised by the Football League and was intended as a form of financial and sporting compensation for the English clubs which had qualified for European competition in the previous season but had been banned from entering European tournaments by UEFA following the Heysel Stadium disaster. With the ban set to last into the foreseeable future, England's clubs stood to lose a great deal of revenue, and would also have fewer opportunities to win silverware, so the Super Cup was established in order to hopefully offset at least some of this lost income, as well as offering additional competition for them.
The Anglo-Scottish Cup was a tournament arranged for teams in the English and Scottish football leagues during the summer for several years during the 1970s. It was created in 1975 as a new incarnation of the Texaco Cup, with a similar format to its predecessor, but involving clubs from England and Scotland only.
The Women's National League Cup is an annual English football cup competition, founded in 1991 by the Women's Football Association (WFA). It was renamed the FA Women's Premier League Cup from 1994 to 2018.
The 1995–96 UEFA Champions League was the 41st season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, and the fourth since its rebranding as the UEFA Champions League. The tournament was won by Juventus, who beat defending champions Ajax on penalties in the final for their first European Cup since 1985, and their second overall. It was the only Champions League title that Juventus won in the 1990s, despite reaching the next two finals, and one of only three Italian wins in the final, despite there being a Serie A club in every final for seven consecutive years from 1992 to 1998.
Robert Andrew Mimms is an English football coach and former player who played as a goalkeeper.
Simon Barker is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.
The 1988–89 season was the 90th completed season of the Football League.
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from its foundation until 1992, when the top 22 clubs split from it to form the Premier League. The Football League was rebranded as the "English Football League" (EFL) starting with the 2016–17 season.
The 1985–86 season was the 87th completed season of The Football League.
The 1984–85 season was the 86th completed season of The Football League.
The 1989–90 season was the 91st completed season of The Football League.
The 1988 Full Members' Cup final was the third Full Members' Cup final, contested by First Division side Luton Town and Second Division team Reading at Wembley Stadium on 27 March 1988. It was the first, and only, Full Members' Cup final for both teams. Reading were making their first appearance at the national stadium, while Luton had not played at the ground since 1959.
During the 1993–94 English football season, Blackburn Rovers F.C. competed in the FA Premier League.
The 1985-86 Full Members' Cup was the first edition of the tournament created to compensate for the ban on English clubs from European football following the Heysel Stadium disaster. It was won by Chelsea, who beat Manchester City 5–4 in the final at Wembley Stadium.