The Scottish Professional Football League, which operates the league system in Scotland, has agreed a four-season rights deal with UK pay-television broadcaster BT Sport that will lead to a major revamp for its League Cup knockout competition.
BT Sport will become the exclusive live broadcaster of the League Cup from the summer of 2016. BT Sport will screen six games from the group stage in July and a further seven games from the knock-out rounds for each of seasons 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20.
The SPFL said BT Sport’s new contract will increase the money available for all the clubs “significantly”, with public-service broadcaster the BBC reporting that it is worth in the region of £8m (€11.4m/$12.1m) over the four-season period.
The new format for the League Cup will result in eight groups of five teams playing each other once each in a round-robin format across five July dates. The new 80-game group stage will involve all 38 teams not involved in qualifiers for European competitions run by Uefa, plus winners of the previous season’s Highland League and Lowland League.
The group stage will use the traditional three points for a win and one point for a draw model, however all drawn matches will go straight to a penalty shoot-out whereby the winner of the shoot-out will be awarded a bonus point, in what is believed to be a first in world football.
The eight group winners and four best runners-up progress to the second round, when they are joined by the four Uefa qualifying clubs and the competition reverts to traditional knock-out format.
The new format will also allow for the re-introduction of a two-weekend winter break for top-tier Premiership clubs during January 2017. The old Scottish Premier League had a winter break from the 1998-99 season until 2002-03.
SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster said: “The new format of the Scottish League Cup marks an exciting new chapter for the competition and sees Scottish football leading the way with a number of innovations.
“Fans, the media and clubs alike have expressed a desire for competitive summer football which will be delivered from next July while the ground-breaking bonus point system should add incentive to teams and excitement for supporters.
“Our agreement with BT Sport delivers a huge increase in the number of games being shown live as well as providing increased competition prizemoney for clubs.”
The current Scottish League Cup format involves six rounds. The new format, scheduled to kick off on July 16, 2016, involves four rounds plus the new group stage.