4

The Supercup rules in England, Spain, Italy, Germany, etc, go along the following lines.

The Supercup is contested between the League champion and the Cup champion; if the same club wins both the League and the Cup, then the Supercup is contested between the League Champion and either the League runner-up or the Cup runner-up (depending on the country).

This format has always bothered me. Why don't winners of a League-Cup double get awarded an automatic Supercup? Winning both already recognizes them as the best club across domestic competitions, which (as I understand) was the original purpose of having a Supercup.

Edit after some research, it turns out that some national associations do award an automatic Supercup to a club that wins a League-Cup double (e.g., Albania and Croatia, among them). Perhaps the more prominent one in this respect is France. Auxerre won an automatic Supercup following their 1995-96 double; the same was to have happened in 2008 with Olympique Lyon, but FFF decided at the last moment to allow Bordeaux (League runner-up) to contest the Supercup. A similar situation could arise this year, given that PSG has already won the League and is the favorite to win the Cup final in a couple weeks from now.

Improve this question
1
  • 1
    Winning the league already recognizes them as the best domestic club. Further I've always seen this as a season opener, which it may have become over the years evolving from a "real cup".
    – Don_Biglia
    Commented May 19, 2015 at 14:17

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
4

I believe the reason is purely commercial. Automatic awarding the supercup leaves the national football association without a match to contest the cup and the corresponding entrance and broadcasting fees.

Improve this answer
2
  • The commercial part will be a big factor, but in countries where supercup is not played in a national stadium or even in two legs, (entrance) fees will not be going to the respective FA but will be for the home side or to be split equally among the two clubs.
    – Don_Biglia
    Commented May 19, 2015 at 14:14
  • 1
    They should have a super cup qualifier between the league runner up and cup runner up. Extra money! :-)
    – Rikki
    Commented May 24, 2015 at 23:49
2

It's a spectacle to get the fans fired up for the upcoming season. You typically want 2 big teams to battle it out. If they happen to be rival teams even better.

Super Cup, while being an additional silverware for the winner is much lesser achievement than league or domestic cup championship (also analogous for Champions League and Europa League).

Part of it is due to the fact that Super Cup is a single game, where not a whole ton of money is at stake, unlike a longer championship where the TV-rights, advertisements etc are distributed to the teams based on their performance. In other words, you win the league you get a ton of money.

Another aspect is that the super cup winner gets nothing besides a trophy. League winner gets a ticket to CL, even Cup winner sometimes go to CL/EL, CL winner get qualified into CL group stage etc. Super cup winner (no matter the type of super cup) gets no additional honour or advantage, so there is actually quite little at stake.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.