The League Cup has long been one of the major pieces of silverware on offer in English football each season.
Alongside the league title and FA Cup, it gives clubs another opportunity to end their campaign with a trophy.
But unlike those two competitions, the League Cup has become almost as well known for its changing identity as the football itself.
Sponsorship has seen the men’s competition operate under numerous different names over the last four decades, beginning with the Milk Cup in the early 1980s.
Since then, it’s been known as the Littlewoods Challenge Cup, Rumbelows Cup, Coca-Cola Cup, Worthington Cup, Carling Cup, Capital One Cup and, most recently, the Carabao Cup.
While the competition itself remained the League Cup, successive sponsorship agreements meant generations of supporters became accustomed to calling it by a variety of different names.
And now the women’s equivalent is undergoing a significant change of its own.
Clubs across the top levels of women’s football have traditionally competed for three major domestic honours each season – the league, Women’s FA Cup and Women’s League Cup.
For the 2026/27 campaign, however, the latter will have both a new name and a completely revamped format.
WSL Football have officially announced that the Subway Women’s League Cup has been renamed the Subway Players Cup.
Subway will remain involved after agreeing a new multi-year deal to become title partner of the competition, but the change goes considerably further than simply putting a new name on the trophy.
The traditional group stage has been replaced by a Swiss-style League Phase featuring 23 clubs in one unified table.
Each participating team will play six matches (three at home and three away) against opponents determined through regionalised fixtures. The eight highest-ranked clubs at the end of the League Phase will then progress to the knockout stages.
There is another major change, with the three clubs competing in the UEFA Women’s Champions League not participating in the Players Cup this season.
WSL Football says the decision has been made with player welfare in mind, reducing fixture congestion for clubs involved in European competition while providing more meaningful playing time for players elsewhere.
That thinking is also behind the competition’s new name, with WSL Football saying the Players Cup identity reflects its ambition to put players at the heart of the revamped tournament.
Subway, meanwhile, remains the title sponsor after previously lending its name to the Women’s League Cup for the past two seasons.
Chelsea are the final holders of the Women’s League Cup under its previous format and name, having beaten Manchester United 2-0 in the 2026 final at Ashton Gate.
With Chelsea among the Champions League clubs sitting out this year’s competition, the first-ever Subway Players Cup will therefore be guaranteed to produce a new winner.
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