The Carling cup has us hungover.

Whilst looters and mobsters and various "Grand Theft Auto" impersonators entrench this week into British lore, most football clubs are preparing for the 1st round of the "carling cup" (West Ham, Bristol CIty, Charlton and Crystal Palace have all had games postpones). A cup competition, which over the years has provided football fans with joyous, life-affirming moments, for my club (Oxford) up until last year, the "Milk Cup" win of '86 was far and away the pride and joy of the football club.

I beg the question though, is the Carling Cup dead? Or if not dead, is it on life support?

Last season, we saw a thoroughly entertaining final, a final in which Arsenal tried to break their 5 year duck of trophyless seasons. For Arsenal, only winning a pre-season cup which they host is all the trophy cabinet has had added to it since 2005, so against Birmingham, as odds-on favourites, it seemed a formality.

What ensued was a well fought, even encounter where Birmingham's Serbian giant Nikola Zigic opened the scoring only for that to be cancelled out by Robin Van Persie, who squared things up just before the half. A nervy second half, where every pass was met with a bouquet of jitters frome ach set of supporters before like every great, the dramatic late twist stunned the audience to there core. In this case, it was a piece of calamitous defending from Laurent Koscielney which led to former Newcastle striker Obefami Martins the simplest of finishes, as he stroked the ball into the open, gaping net, where the ripples of said net was met with a pure, euphoric roar from 35,000 screaming "Brummies". The final will always have magic!

Whilst the latter stages, and the final will always be special, as winning is always special, what about the prize, the place in the Europa League. A tournament with dwindling attendances, lots of games, and an excuse to play fringe players and youngsters, yet still charge the same, astronomical prices. Similar to the carling cup.

My biggest problem with the competition is the new rule the football league implemented to seed and regionalise the draw. I understand, and wholeheartedly agree with regionalising the first two rounds, due to the games being mid-week and trips to Carlisle, Newcastle, Middlesbrough probably aren;t sought after by Torquay, Exeter and Plymouth, to name a few. So, dividing the draw into regions is understandable, smart and a very clever way to try increase said dwindling attendances.

However, the seeding of the draw is what, to me, is killing this cup. In what must be the worst change since "Saved by the bell" brough Tori in at the end of the fourth series, the football league have attempted to protect the bigger clubs in the draw. Once again, the smaller clubs in the draw, wildly overlooked are being forced into playing the better teams in the draw, which in turn, costs alot of them a shot at a real "glamour tie" in the 3rd round. For Oxford, we face Cardiff at home. Cardiff, a pretty standard championship club, decent support, very good squad and will be in the top 10 in the championship judging by previous seasons. For Oxford, bar an upset, the chance of defeat seems very likely, meaning we would be out of the cup, without making any serious money, and no chance of a Tottenham, Chelsea or Arsenal in round 3.

The carling cup isn't dead, but does anyone know CPR, because it definately needs new life.