The Full Members' Cup was an association football cup competition held 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 ...

from 1985 to 1992. It was also known under its sponsored names of the Simod Cup from 1987 to 1989 and the Zenith Data Systems Cup from 1989 to 1992.Full Members Cup overview and finals at FCHD
/ref> The competition was created after the 1985

Heysel Stadium disaster The Heysel Stadium disaster ( it, Strage dell'Heysel ; german: link=no, Katastrophe von Heysel ; french: Drame du Heysel ; nl, Heizeldrama ) was a crowd disaster that occurred on 29 May 1985 when mostly Juventus fans escaping from a breach by L ...

, when English clubs were banned from

European competition The European Competition is a student competition in which students of all ages submit creative, artistic, or written pieces of work on the activities of the European Union. Tendered by European Movement Germany, it is the oldest student competition ...

, as an additional competition for clubs in the top two English League divisions. The competition's name refers to the clubs that were Full Members of

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

, with full voting rights; teams from the lower two divisions were Associate Members and were only eligible for the Associate Members' Cup (now known as the EFL Trophy). The initial Full Members' Cup did not include the six teams that had qualified for 1985–86 European competitions, as these played in the English Super Cup instead. While the European ban of English clubs was partially lifted for 1990–91, and fully lifted for 1991–92, the Full Members' Cup survived through the end of 1991–92, its seventh season. The competition was then cancelled the following season when the old Football League First Division was replaced by 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 ...

. Seven finals took place between 1986 and 1992.

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

and

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were the only

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

teams to win the Cup.

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and

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

were the most successful teams in the competition, with both of them winning it twice.

Participants

The competition was open to all teams from the top two levels of the English Leagues, namely the

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and Second Divisions. The six First Division teams that qualified for 1985–86 European play were invited to the English Super Cup tournament rather than the Full Members' Cup. Some eligible teams chose not to compete in the tournament in a particular year, while four teams in the First Division throughout the seven seasons of the tournament never entered the competition – Arsenal,

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 ...

, Manchester United and

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

. Details of numbers of teams competing in each of the seasons:Old Cup Competitions/Full Members Cup at Statto.com
* 1985–86: 21 teams – 5 (of 16, with 6 in Super Cup) from Division 1 and 16 (of 22) from Division 2 * 1986–87: 36 teams – 14 (of 22) from Division 1 and all 22 from Division 2 * 1987–88: 40 teams – 17 (of 21) from Division 1 and all 23 from Division 2 * 1988–89: 40 teams – 16 (of 20) from Division 1 and all 24 from Division 2 * 1989–90: 37 teams – 13 (of 20) from Division 1 and all 24 from Division 2 *

1990–91 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

: 39 teams – 15 (of 20) from Division 1 and all 24 from Division 2 * 1991–92: 41 teams – 18 (of 22) from Division 1 and 23 (all but Sunderland) from Division 2

Finals

Second Division members are in ''italics''. Source:

Notes

References

External links

''When Saturday Comes'' article on the Full Members' Cup - (on web.archive.org - original link dead)
{{Full Members' Cup Defunct English Football League competitions Defunct football cup competitions in England 1985 establishments in England 1992 disestablishments in England Recurring sporting events established in 1985 Recurring events disestablished in 1992