THE 1895 Cup will look wildly different in 2024 as opposed to the history of the competition.
In the past, only Championship clubs have taken part in the cup, but next season League One clubs will enter the fray – with the exception of Cornwall.
Groups will be seeded and regionalised, with League One clubs awarded home advantage in any fixtures against Championship opposition.
From there, the top team in each group will qualify for the quarter-final stage, joined by the best-performing second-placed team which will be decided by competition points initially and then, if necessary, by points difference.
The first round of group fixtures in the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup will be played on the weekend of January 27-28.
The remaining two rounds of group fixtures will be played in February, alternating with the early rounds of the Challenge Cup.
Then, the quarter-finals will be played on March 3, semi-finals on May 12 and the final at Wembley Stadium on Saturday June 8.
Having regionalised and seeded groups does, however, throw up a number of questions. Firstly, Featherstone Rovers and Wakefield Trinity would arguably be in the same regionalised group, but certainly not in the same seeded group.
Then, of course, there are the Midlands Hurricanes and North Wales Crusaders who are not exactly in the same region as any other Championship or League One club.
Sheffield Eagles and Doncaster would arguably be paired together, but who would the third club be in their group?
Widnes Vikings are in the same boat as Midlands and North Wales with Warrington Wolves the only club nearby but of course they are in a different league.
Also, it is mentioned that there will be three rounds of fixtures in the group stages – how can that be when there are only three clubs in the group itself? They can’t exactly play themselves.
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