PLANS for a British Super Cup tournament next season appeared both impractical and fanciful when examined beyond face value yesterday.

David Burns, chief executive of the English Football League, revealed his organisation’s proposals to merge the Worthington Cup with its Scottish counterpart, the CIS Insurance Cup, from the semi-final stages.

The four English and Scottish clubs would be drawn against each other to form the quarter-finals of the amalgamated tournament, a move Football League officials believe would increase commercial interest and television revenue.

However, the Preston-based body has yet to afford its Scottish counterpart at Hampden the courtesy of an approach about the concept, which received a sceptical response from Scottish League secretary Peter Donald yesterday. "I have no knowledge of the detail of Mr Burns’ plan, but CIS are the sponsors of our cup for another season after this one, so the timescale mentioned is simply not possible," he said.

"I would also be interested to know how it would be possible to integrate our League Cup and the Worthington Cup and satisfy both sponsors. There are many other obstacles to consider and, although many things in football change quickly, the Scottish Football League are keen to maintain the profile the CIS Cup gives us."

Chief among the hurdles to be overcome is the European place currently awarded to the Worthington Cup winners - the CIS Cup carries no such additional prize - and how UEFA would view a merged tournament.

Perhaps even more pertinently, given the recent re-emergence of crowd trouble in England and Scotland, senior police officers would not welcome a tournament which this season could have thrown up ties such as Celtic v Chelsea and Rangers v Tottenham.

The merged competition has been backed by the Scottish Premier League.

Taken from the Scotsman