Quote Originally Posted by The Captain
One question though:

I'm still a little in the dark about all these 'Cups' that the teams are playing for outside of the Champions league and obviously the Premiership. For instance, what's the Carling Cup?
I'll do my best to provide a brief explanation:

The two major domestic cups are the F.A. Cup and the Carling Cup. The F.A. Cup is the more presitigious of the two, since it's been around since 1871, before a football league even existed. The F.A. Cup begins with a qualifying section, in which all of the "non-league" teams (everyone outside of the top four divisions) compete for a place in the first round proper. At this point, the teams from Leagues 1 and 2 (which rather confusingly are the third and fourth highest divisions) are introduced into the draw. In the third round, the remaining teams (from the Premiership and Championship) are added into the mix. The whole thing is a straight knockout competition, and since games are randomly drawn (there's no seeding system) there's every chance that Manchester United could end up playing an amateur non-league side in the third round.

The Carling Cup has been through many names, since the sponsor changes every couple of seasons. The official name is the Football League Cup. It's similar to the F.A. Cup in format, although no non-league teams are allowed to enter, so there's no qualifying stage. The trophy isn't as highly sought-after as the F.A. Cup, since it doesn't have the same history. Because of this, the biggest clubs tend to use this competition as a chance to rest their best players, and give a chance to their reserve line-up. It's hardly a worthless trophy, and it's a good chance for some of the mid-table Premiership sides to grab some silverware. Nevertheless, it's very much the secondary cup competition.