TOMORROW's League Cup winners could have the prize of a UEFA Cup place taken away from them before the end of the season. The action would hasten the end of the competition in its current format. The threat comes from UEFA who are next month expected to remove the FA's right to offer a UEFA Cup place to the League Cup winners.

Without such an incentive many leading clubs will follow Manchester United in entering weakened teams. Re structuring of the competition would follow. One FA official even went so far yesterday as to say privately "we assume it will be the end of the competition."

If UEFA invoke their ban immediately after their April 19th executive meeting, the winner of tomorrow's final between Aston Villa and Leeds would lose the right of entry into next season's competition.