Cup-tied

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Cup-tied is an adjective, used primarily in football, to describe a player who is ineligible to play in a knockout cup competition after transferring from another club during that competition.

In virtually all domestic and international cup competitions, any player who makes an appearance for a club at any stage of the competition is "tied" to that club for all future matches during that season in the same competition. This prevents a strong team from gaining an unfair advantage by signing a talented player from a club that has lost in an earlier round. A team that wishes to transfer a player may deliberately choose to keep that player off its cup roster to ensure that he is not cup-tied, increasing his usefulness to a club that may be involved in the same competition. A recent example of this was Liverpool manager Rafael Benítez' decision to keep Milan Baroš out of Liverpool's squad for their 2005-06 UEFA Champions League ties in order to retain his value to clubs interested in purchasing the Czech striker's services. (Baroš eventually moved to Aston Villa, which was not involved in the Champions League.) In another instance, Ronaldo was forced to buy out his contract with Real Madrid to move to A.C. Milan; he was cup-tied to Madrid in the Champions League which decreased his value to Milan. A.C. Milan went on to win the tournament, but Ronaldo was not allowed to play in any of their games. In the 2008 FA Cup Final against Cardiff City FC, Portsmouth player Jermaine Defoe was cup-tied and thus unable to play in the match. Portsmouth went on to win this match 1-0.

Similarly, although far less often, a team may deliberately cup-tie a player to discourage a transfer during that season. Note, however, that this does not restrict most international transfers; cup-tying is only an issue internationally if both teams involved in the transfer are involved in a continental cup competition such as the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Cup. Arsenal coach Arsène Wenger kept both Ashley Cole and José Antonio Reyes out of their Champions League Qualifiers against Dinamo Zagreb due to impending transfers to other clubs involved. Simão Sabrosa, for example, didn't play for Benfica in the UEFA Champions League´s third qualifying round for the same reason: clubs such as Chelsea, Liverpool and mainly Valencia were interested in him. He never did move for the remainder of the year, until July 2007 where he transferred to Atlético Madrid.