The
Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,
commonly known as the
Scottish Cup, and as the
Active Nation Scottish Cup for sponsorship
reasons, is the main national cup competition in
Scottish football. It is a
knockout cup competition run
by and named after the
Scottish Football
Association.
The Scottish Cup awarded to the Scottish Cup winners is the oldest
national trophy in the world.
The Scottish Cup was first held in
1873-74, with the first winners
being
Queen's Park. Because it
involves clubs of all standards playing against each other, there
is the possibility for "
minnow" from the lower or junior
divisions to become "giant-killers" by eliminating top clubs from
the tournament. The current holders of the Scottish Cup are
Rangers, who beat
Falkirk 1-0 in the
2009 final on
30
May 2009.
History
The Scottish Cup began in the
1873–74 season, and was
contested by 16 teams. The trophy was first awarded to
Queen's Park when they beat
Clydesdale 2–0 in the final in front of a
crowd of 3,000 people. While the
FA Cup is
the oldest cup competition in the world, the trophy awarded to the
Scottish Cup winners is the oldest national trophy, being minted in
1885.
The
Scottish War Emergency
Cup was a temporary competition held at the start of the
World War II, due to the suspension of
the Scottish Cup by the
SFA. It was held between
February and May in 1940, the competition involved all sixteen
League clubs still operating,
Cowdenbeath later withdrew which meant
Dunfermline Athletic
received a bye in the first round.
Rangers beat
Dundee United 1–0 in the Final.
Old Firm dominance
The Old Firm (Celtic
and Rangers, both of Glasgow
) are the
dominant force in Scottish football. They are the only two
clubs to have won the
Scottish
Premier League since its inception in 1998, and their dominance
also extends over the Scottish Cup, though to a lesser
degree.
The
2006 final was played on
13 May 2006 at Hampden Park
and was contested by Hearts and Gretna. This was the first final in nine
years that an Old Firm side had not been involved in, and the first
ever to feature a team from the third tier of the
Scottish League
system.
"Giant Killers"
The Scottish Cup produces occasional "giant-killings" where a team
from a low division defeats a team from a higher division. Some
famous cup shocks include 1938, when
Second Division
East Fife were the victors in the
final against
Kilmarnock and thus
won the cup. Another instance was in 1967, when
Berwick Rangers defeated
Rangers 1–0. Sammy Reid scoring the only goal
of the match. Also, Highland League outfit Fraserburgh's 1-0 win on
31 January 1959, against a Dundee side which had 7 Scottish
Internationals in their side.
In 2000
First
Division Inverness
Caledonian Thistle beat Celtic 3–1
at Celtic
Park
. The
Sun recorded it thus:
Celtic,
with a debutante Roy Keane in tow, also
fell victim to Clyde, a side whose
average age was 21, when they were beaten 2–1 at Broadwood
Stadium
in January 2006.
Format
The competition format is that of a
single elimination knockout. Teams are
drawn against each other randomly. The team who is drawn first from
each tie is the home team. If the first match finishes in a
draw, a
replay is
played at the stadium of the second team drawn. In the replay, if
the scores are still level at full time,
extra time is played and (if necessary)
penalties are used to decide the
winner of the tie.
The
semi-final matches are played at neutral stadiums, usually the
national stadium Hampden
Park
. and the final itself is traditionally played at
Hampden. Celtic
Park
staged the finals in 1993 and 1998 and Ibrox
staged the
final in 1997 while Hampden was
being redeveloped. The final and semi-final do not have
replays and are played to a finish. Extra time is played and
penalties are used if necessary. Two finals (
1990 and
2006) have been decided by
penalties.
Entry criteria
Previously clubs in the
Third and
Second Division qualified
automatically for the first round, along with four
non-league teams each from the
Scottish Qualifying Cup (North) and
(South) competitions. Clubs in the
First Division and the
Scottish Premier League had
automatic byes to the third round. However, from the
2007–08 season a new
criteria was introduced for entry into the Scottish Cup. The
Scottish Qualifying Cup
competitions were scrapped and the 36
SFA member clubs outwith the
SPL and
SFL were given direct entry to the
1st Round of the cup. Additionally, the league winners of the East
of Scotland and South of Scotland Leagues, both of which contain
some clubs that are not full members of the SFA and hence could not
previously enter the Scottish Cup, were given a place in the
draw.
Clubs from Scottish Junior football (all but one of whom are not
members of the SFA as they belong to the
Scottish Junior FA)
were admitted for the first time in the 2007–08 competition. Up to
four Junior clubs are allowed to enter, these being the winners of
the previous season's North Premier League, West Premier League and
East Superleague, and the winner of the
Scottish Junior Cup if they have not
also won one of the three regional league titles. The first three
Junior clubs to qualify for the tournament were
Culter,
Pollok and
Linlithgow Rose. During Season
2008–09, Junior sides
Bathgate
Thistle,
Pollok,
Banks O' Dee and
Lochee United will compete in the
tournament.
European qualification
As with all domestic cup competitions in
UEFA
countries, the winners of the Scottish Cup qualify for the
following season's
UEFA Europa
League (previously the
UEFA Cup). If
the winners have already qualified for a higher-ranked tournament,
either by winning the league (or in modern times, finishing
second), the cup runners-up are awarded a place in Europe. This has
been quite a regular occurrence in Scotland, with either
Rangers or
Celtic
often winning '
The Double', while
Aberdeen also achieved that feat in
1984. In 2006,
Heart of
Midlothian had already qualified for the Champions League by
finishing second in the
SPL,
and then won the
2006 Scottish
Cup Final. Therefore, the Scottish Cup place in Europe passed
to
Gretna, the beaten finalists.
In 2008, the
SFA
announced that in such a situation the place would in future be
awarded to the highest-placed club in the SPL who had not otherwise
qualified for Europe. This followed some disappointing performances
by middle-ranking Scottish teams including
Gretna,
Dunfermline Athletic and
Queen of the South. All those clubs
were knocked out at the first hurdle of the
UEFA Cup which reduced the nation's
coefficient, the calculation used to
determine the number of places allocated in UEFA tournaments.
UEFA blocked the proposed change, however,
insisting that a club from the cup competition should represent
Scotland. Therefore
Falkirk qualified
for the
UEFA Europa League
2009-10, despite losing the
2009 Scottish Cup Final to league
champions Rangers. Falkirk duly lost in their opening tie to
FC Vaduz of Liechtenstein.
Facts
The cup holds the record for the biggest victory in World senior
football, when on
12 September 1885 Arbroath beat
Bon Accord 36–0.
The record attendance for a final is 147,365 in the 1937 final
between Celtic and
Aberdeen, a
European record for domestic football. The first final to be
decided on penalties was in 1990 when Aberdeen beat
Celtic 9–8 on penalties after a 0–0 draw.
Hibernian have now played 337 games
in the competition since they last won the Cup in 1902.
St Mirren in 1987 are the last team
to win the cup with a team containing only Scottish players.
The current holders are Rangers.
Previous winners and finalists
Media coverage
Scottish
Cup matches are currently broadcast live by both BBC Scotland and Sky
Sports across Scotland
, with Sky
broadcasting exclusively to England
, Wales
, Northern
Ireland
and the Republic of Ireland
. Sky Sports broadcast one live match per
round from the third round onwards. BBC Scotland broadcast two live
matches prior to the Final and show highlights of every game from
the third round onward. Both live matches and highlights are shown
on their
Sportscene strand. Both BBC
Scotland and Sky show the final live.
Radio broadcasting rights are currently held by
BBC Radio Scotland,
BBC Radio nan Gàidheal and
BBC Radio 5 Live.
The Scottish FA sells overseas rights separately from their
domestic contract. In Australia, the Scottish Cup is broadcast by
Setanta Sports
Australia.
Sponsorship
The tournament has been sponsored by a number of institutions in
recent years, which have also lent their name to the competition.
These sponsors have included:
The
Scottish Government in
association with businessman
Willie
Haughey sponsor the Scottish Cup for the 2008–09 and 2009–10
seasons, with the 2009 competition being called
The
Homecoming Scottish Cup and the 2010 competition called
The Active Nation Scottish Cup.
See also
References
- SFA Handbook 2006-07 Cup Competition
Rules
- Scottish Cup given new branding
- Official Site of the Tennent's Scottish Cup Scottish
Football Museum Experience
- Scottish Football Association The Scottish Cup
2007/08
- Junior clubs enter Scottish Cup
External links