The 50th year of The Football League Cup begins this week with clubs from the Championship, League 1 and League 2 kicking off this season's Carling Cup.

To celebrate the competition's Golden Anniversary, The Football League is asking fans to nominate their favourite League Cup moments, with 50 pairs of tickets up for grabs for this season's Carling Cup Final.  The League will reveal the all-time Top 50 League Cup moments in the lead-up to the match at Wembley Stadium on February 28.

Whether its Ben Foster's iPod inspired penalty heroics in last season's final, Ronnie Whelan's glorious curling winner for Liverpool in 1983, Dennis Tueart's stunning overhead kick for Manchester City in 1976 or Division Three Swindon Town's famous win over Arsenal in the Don Rogers Final of 1969, The League wants to hear your views.  Supporters can send their special moment to leaguecup@football-league.co.uk.

Football League Chairman Lord Mawhinney said: "Fifty years is an important milestone for The Football League's showpiece Cup competition.  We look forward to celebrating this special anniversary across the season. 

"More than 78 million fans have watched matches in the League Cup since 1960.  We want those supporters to tell us their favourite highlight from the last five decades.  These will underline the excellent football and excitement which have been the bedrock of the competition.

"The League Cup is essential to the financial welfare of English professional football.  Through television revenue and gate receipts it generates the income that sustains the most developed professional football pyramid in the world game.

"Long may it continue."

The League Cup, which began on 26^th September 1960, was the brainchild of former Football League Secretary Alan Hardaker.  Originally, part of the 'Pattern for Football' document, which proposed enlarging The League from 92 to 100 clubs (in five divisions of 20), the new Cup competition was intended to compensate clubs for the ensuing loss of fixtures.  However, clubs rejected the proposed changes to their league competition but kept the League Cup.

From humble beginnings, the competition rapidly began to thrive, particularly following its first Wembley final between Queen's Park Rangers and West Bromwich Albion in 1967, Hardaker saying of his creation, "If the FA Cup is football's Ascot, the League Cup Final is its Derby Day."

During the 70's and 80's the League Cup established itself as a major competition in the domestic football calendar, with the winners earning a place in European football the following season.  The League Cup, like much of domestic and European football was dominated by Liverpool, with the Reds winning four consecutive finals between 1981 and 1984.  By that stage the competition had become the first major Cup competition to bear the name of a sponsor, following a groundbreaking deal with the National Dairy Council.

The competition's most enduring commercial partnership, however, has been with current sponsor Molson Coors (UK) whose current agreement - which runs until at least 2012 - takes the brewer's support of the competition to fourteen seasons under its Worthington's and Carling brands.

The last decade has presented new challenges for The League's showpiece competition, with the proliferation of games in the Champions League and UEFA Cup placing ever greater demands on club playing resources.  The League, itself, has contributed to the fixture congestion debate by scrapping replays and seeding clubs in European competition through to Round Three.  Despite this, the use of 'squad' sides by some larger clubs still led to questions being asked about the competition's future.