🏆 Coppa Italia: time for a format change? 🤔 European comparison

Juve, Inter, Napoli, and Atalanta advance to the quarter-finals thanks to victories over Udinese, Venezia, Cagliari, and Genoa, with matches strictly played in front of their home crowd.

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Except for the Italian champions, who had to resort to penalties to get the better of Pisacane's team, the other occasions were little more than a walk in the park, especially for Inter. Against a heavily reshuffled and already inferior Venezia, the match for Inter's second string seemed little more than a training session.

In the post-match, the coach of the orange and green team, Giovanni Stroppa, admitted the limits of his team, but did not fail to highlight a detail: "What is the point of playing the Coppa Italia away for the small team? The regulation is this, but maybe with the home effect it could have been different...".

A thought shared by many, but it seems destined to remain just that. But how are the other national cups structured?

🇮🇹 Coppa Italia

The Coppa Italia features 44 teams: 20 from Serie A, 18 from Serie B, and 6 from Serie C. All matches are knockout rounds and the path to the end of the competition is as follows:

• Preliminary round: 3 teams from Serie B + 5 teams from Serie C

• Round of 32: 4 winners from the preliminary round + 12 teams from Serie A + 15 from Serie B (including those relegated from the previous year) + 1 team from Serie C

• Round of 16: 16 winners from the round of 32 + 8 teams from Serie A (the top 8 from the previous Serie A season)

The TV rights for the Coppa Italia are constantly increasing and in the latest tender were sold for 58 million per edition. The winning team, between the prize and various revenues for reaching the final, earns about 7.1 million euros.

The 4.4 million prize offered by the League is significantly higher than the FA Cup, which is 2 million pounds. However, the revenue from television rights for the latter competition is significantly greater.

🏴 FA Cup

The FA Cup features over 700 teams: from the ninth English league (with possible inclusion from the tenth, in case of forfeit) up to the Premier League.

• 6 qualifying rounds: 640 teams between the 5th and 10th levels

• First proper round with 80 teams: 32 qualifiers from the first 6 rounds + 24 teams from League One + 24 teams from League Two

• Second proper round: 40 qualifiers from the previous round

• Third Proper Round: 20 qualifiers from the previous round + 24 teams from the Championship + 20 from the Premier League

• Round of 32

• Round of 16

• Quarter-finals

• Semi-finals

• Final

The TV rights for the FA Cup starting this year should yield 76 million euros per year.

🇫🇷 Coupe de France

The Coupe de France has an even more "extreme" system than the FA Cup, compared to the Italian version. The number of teams is chosen annually based on those that can register.

Teams from the 4th and 3rd levels enter the competition when lower-level teams are still the clear majority.

• Fourth round: 1188 qualifiers from previous rounds + 50 National 2 teams (our Serie D)

• Fifth round: 612 qualifiers from the previous round + 18 National teams (our Serie C)

• Sixth round: 306 qualifiers from the previous round (no new entries)

• Seventh round: 176 qualifiers from the previous round + 20 Ligue 2 teams + 3 from the territories of New Caledonia, Mayotte, and Polynesia

• Eighth round: 92 qualifiers from the previous round + 4 teams from the territories of Guadeloupe, Guyane, La Réunion, and Martinique

• Round of 32: 46 teams qualified from the previous round + 20 Ligue 1 teams

This scheme explains why almost every year Ligue 2 (or higher) teams go to play at the home of a team from a former French colony.

Despite the charm of such progression, television coverage is limited and the value of TV rights is just over 22 million per year, less than half of the Coppa Italia.

🇩🇪 DFB-Pokal

The DFB-Pokal has a mixed system compared to those seen previously. It features 64 teams:

• 18 from the Bundesliga

• 18 from the Zweite Bundesliga

• 4 from the Third Division

• 24 representatives from regional associations (21) recognized by the German Football Association.

Despite the smaller number of clubs involved, all teams face each other from the first round, which takes place in August.

The annual value of TV rights should be over 60 million euros.

🇪🇸 Copa del Rey

In Spain, there is the Copa del Rey, which recently changed its format (since 2019). It features 116 teams:

• 20 from La Liga

• 22 from the Segunda

• 10 teams from the Primera RFEF (the top 5 from the standings of the two qualifying groups)

• 25 teams from the Segunda RFEF (18 champions from each group, plus 7 of the best runners-up)

• the 4 teams that reach the semi-finals of the RFEF Cup

• the 10 best teams from regional divisions

It immediately plays as a knockout and always on the field of the lower category team (in the case of the same category, it is played on the field of the first team drawn).

La Liga teams enter the game from the second round with a completely random draw, the only ones excluded are those that qualify for the Super Cup and enter from the third round.

A system far from that of the Coppa Italia.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.

📸 Paolo Bruno - 2019 Getty Images