Although it is widely reported that the League Cup was Alan Hardaker's idea, in his autobiography he actually gives the credit to Sir Stanley Rous, who was at that time secretary of the Football Association. He relates the tale of the Post-War Reconstruction Committee, which was a joint exercise by the FA and League to help regenerate football in England at the end of the Second World War. Sir Stanley apparently designed a separate knockout competition, to be entered by those clubs beaten in the early rounds of the FA Cup proper, but the plan was never approved. It was this idea, in tandem with the blueprint of the already-implemented Scottish League Cup north of the border, which prompted Hardaker to formulate the English League Cup.