I do not know what a Checkatrade is, but I do know that Bristol Rovers are, as we football folk say, entertaining a version of Reading in their trophy tomorrow night. The Checkatrade Trophy is the bastard son of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy where third and fourth tier football clubs battled for the right to have a Wembley final of third and fourth tier clubs. It’s different this season because for reasons best known to themselves, the English Football League (EFL) has decided to include Under 23 teams from the Premier League and the Championship. What a great idea that wasn’t!
The Checkatrade Cup now provides us with the worst of all worlds in that the top clubs from the Premier League were merely invited to take part and the majority declined, leaving fixtures like Bristol Rovers v Reading Under 23s in a tournament that now means absolutely nothing, even if you win it. It’s now a hybrid of a serious competition and an invitational tournament. If you become the champion of Checkatrade you become the champion of nothing.
I do not buy the idea that we should just ignore what has happened here, which has been the imposition of a Frankenstein experiment with a format which was previously quite logical and easy to understand. Just ignore it and hope it goes away is not good enough. So what to do?
I would not cross the road to watch an early stage game of the Checkatrade Trophy even if it was in the previous format. I know it’s the Rovers and all that, but it’s not a tournament that floats my boat. I prefer the League bread and butter and the EFL and FA Cup fluff to what is essentially a cup tournament for clubs who would never win the major ones. If there’s a final at Wembley and its attendant day on the lash, I might be persuaded, but otherwise, I’ll listen on the radio if it’s not hair wash night.
There are arguments on social networks about what to do. Should people boycott the tournament altogether? Will there be a picket line with those attending being denounced as scabs?
Not that anyone would listen to me, but I’d say it’s matter for Gasheads as to whether they attend. No one should be abused for attending or criticised for staying away. This is not the Labour Party, you know! And will there be a picket line? Oh come on: this is Bristol Rovers, not the train drivers’ union. Recent history suggests that our bark is far louder than our bite. We care about what is happening on the pitch and we leave what happens off the pitch to the owners. I have learned the hard way that this is exactly the right thing to do.
I end with a novel suggestion. If you decide not to go, then why not donate what you would have spent on admission to a vital frontline charity like the British Red Cross, where you can help people in crisis at home and abroad? You could make a difference, like the organisation did here.
But whatever you do, don’t blame the Rovers. Don’t forget that we voted against this mad idea but now we’re stuck with it. Wael Al Qadi and Steve Hamer aren’t responsible for this fiasco and are the good guys in all this. Just do what you feel is right and let others make this own decisions.
