Mickey Mouse cup
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"Mickey Mouse Cup" is a
pejorative A pejorative or slur is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard. Sometimes, a ...
and biased term used particularly in
English football Association football is the most popular sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game. With over 40,000 association f ...
to describe some seasonal competitions based in elimination rounds regarded with lesser prestige than others such as the English Football League Cup, compared with the
FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...
, or single annual match tournaments as the
UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was original ...
. Despite its status as worldwide competition organised by the sport's governing body,
FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
, the term has also been applied to the
FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 200 ...
, a competition won by an English club three times since its debut in
2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...
. Often, a club that perceives a competition as a "Mickey Mouse Cup" – usually a stronger Premier League side – will field a weakened, reserve or youth team in the competition, resting more high-profile players and further weakening the perception of the competition. However, this often has the effect of giving chances to play to developing players, who may progress into the first team. The term may also be applied to a competition to intentionally disparage the winning of it by a rival side, or to minimize the importance of the competition to a club if knocked out. This may be done as part of a
mind game Playing mind games (also power games or head games) is the largely conscious struggle for psychological one-upmanship, often employing passive–aggressive behavior to specifically demoralize or dis-empower the thinking subject, making the ag ...
with rival clubs in other competitions, or for reasons to maintain team morale.


Cases

The English Football League Cup is often referred to as the "Mickey Mouse Cup" by larger Premier League clubs as is the
EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL L ...
which has been known by various sponsors' names and which was previously the ''Associate Members Cup''. The perception of a cup as "Mickey Mouse" may not be universal, since smaller and lower standard competitions give a chance for lower league clubs to win silverware, and additionally gain extra revenue from playing a much larger club. Also for some of the top league clubs, reaching and winning the final at
Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...
has some prestige. Since the rebranding of UEFA club competitions in late 1990s, the
UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...
is considered by a group of mass media, personnel related to football and fans as a "minor trophy" or "Mickey Mouse cup" due to being mediaticly overshadowed by the Champions League. Originally the Champions League (formerly European Cup) was only open to the domestic league winners, while the UEFA Cup featured the domestic league runners-ups and the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was for the winners of the top domestic cup competition. However the expansion of the Champions League to include up to the top four finishers in the strongest European domestic leagues has reduced the prestige of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (which was abolished and folded into the UEFA Cup) and the resulting expanded UEFA Cup. Consequently achieving a top three or four domestic league finish (which guarantees Champions League participation) became much more important than winning a domestic cup (which only guarantees entry to the UEFA Cup). Since the 2014–15 season, the UEFA Europa League's importance has improved somewhat as winners will enter the next season's UEFA Champions League at the group stage. The Conference League, created in 2021 as a
demerge A demerger is a form of corporate restructuring in which the entity's business operations are segregated into one or more components. It is the converse of a merger or acquisition. A demerger can take place through a spin-off by distributed or t ...
of the Europa League (the UEFA Cup's commercial name since it was
rebranded Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investor ...
for resolve its sporting and economic crisis in 2008), has also been described as a "Mickey Mouse cup" by that group. Champions League participation, and achieving a top three or four domestic league finish (which guarantees Champions League participation), has become much more important than winning a domestic cup (which only guarantees entry to the UEFA Cup) like the
FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...
or English Football League Cup. For instance the
2011–12 Copa del Rey The 2011–12 Copa del Rey was the 110th staging of the Copa del Rey (including two seasons where two rival editions were played). The competition began on 31 August 2011 and ended on 25 May 2012 with the final, which was held at the Vicente Calde ...
had its
final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...
scheduled unusually late by the
Royal Spanish Football Federation The Royal Spanish Football Federation ( es, Real Federación Española de Fútbol; RFEF) is the governing body of football in Spain. It is based in La Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas, a municipality near Madrid. It was founded on 14 October 19 ...
, so that it would allow the big clubs such as
FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Found ...
and
Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...
to focus on the Champions League. Another example was when Manchester United controversially withdrew from the
1999–2000 FA Cup The 1999–2000 FA Cup (known as The FA Cup sponsored by AXA for sponsorship reasons) was the 119th staging of the FA Cup. Both the semifinals and final of the competition were played at Wembley Stadium for the last time before reconstruction wor ...
, the first time the holders had done so, which combined with the UEFA Cup's decline (see above) has reduced the importance of the FA Cup and other domestic cups. United had earlier entered into the inaugural Club World Championship, supposedly to help England with its World Cup host bid, under pressure from the government and The FA. United stated that entering both the FA Cup and Club World Cup would overload their fixture schedule that would make it more difficult to defend their Champions League and Premiership titles, and claimed that they did not want to devalue the FA Cup by fielding a weaker side. The move benefited United as they received a two-week break and ended up winning the 1999–2000 league title by an 18-point margin, although they did not progress past the group stages of the Club World Cup. The withdrawal from the FA Cup, however, drew considerable criticism as this weakened the tournament's prestige and manager Alex Ferguson has since admitted his regrets in how they handled the situation. While winning three FA Cups in the 1990s, as part of the " Doubles" in 1994 and 1996 and the 1999 "Treble", switching focus to the Premier League and UEFA Champions League meant that United has only won the FA Cup in 2004 and 2016. For English clubs, the
FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 200 ...
is often regarded as "insigificant", in contrast to the Champions League, despite the competition winners are named club world champions

Since 2010, the term has been used as a nickname for the
Walt Disney World Pro Soccer Classic The Walt Disney World Pro Soccer Classic is an annual preseason soccer tournament for clubs in North America. Hosted by Disney, it is contested at Hess Sports Fields' Field 17, part of the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fl ...
, a preseason tournament played by teams in the Major League Soccer, a league that itself has been called a "Mickey Mouse League". In recent years the term has also become popular amongst Australian Football League fans when referring to the fruitless and seldom taken seriously
NAB Cup In the Australian Football League (AFL), previously the Victorian Football League (VFL), the pre-season competition, known during its history by a variety of sponsored names and most recently as the NAB Cup, was an annual Australian rules foot ...
. The terms ''Mickey Mouse Treble'' and ''Mickey Mouse Double'' have been used subjectively to disparage the winning of what are perceived as multiple lesser trophies by larger clubs in a single season, in comparison to a seasonal treble and a
double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ...
. Such terms are usually applied by a rival club. The term 'Mickey Mouse Treble' along with 'plastic treble' has been used to describe
Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
's 2001 win of the Football League Cup,
UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...
and
FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...
, compared to United's win of the
Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
,
FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...
and
UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...
in 1999. Manchester United themselves were criticised for celebrating a 'Mickey Mouse Treble' in 2016–17 when they won the FA Community Shield,
League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...
and
UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...
, especially since domestic super cups are perceived to hold little, albeit still official, status in Britain.


Other users

The term has also been used to undermine football referees. After a questionable decision by an official in a Newcastle United match, manager
Joe Kinnear Joseph Patrick Kinnear (born 27 December 1946) is an Irish former football manager and player. Kinnear played as a defender, spending the majority of his career—ten seasons—with Tottenham Hotspur. With Tottenham he won the FA Cup, the EFL ...
reacted by criticising the quality of refereeing, saying: "It was a blatant foul, a blatant push prior to the penalty, and he ignores it...it was just a Mickey Mouse ref doing nothing." The Los Angeles Lakers' victory in the
2020 NBA Finals The 2020 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2019–20 season and conclusion of the season's playoffs. In this best-of-seven playoff series, the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Laker ...
has been described as a "Mickey Mouse ring" for its unusual circumstances, chiefly the fact that the entire 2020 NBA Playoffs took place in the NBA Bubble in
Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, ...
due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
. Similarly, the
Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...
also had their
2020 World Series The 2020 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's 2020 season. The 116th World Series was a best-of-seven-playoff between the American League (AL) champion Tampa Bay Rays and the National League (NL) champion Los Ang ...
championship called a "Mickey Mouse ring" since the season was shortened to 60 games, whose playoffs also occurred under a bubble format across multiple neutral sites.


References

{{reflist Association football terminology Football in England