The 2024–25

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...

, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the 79th season of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

's second-most prestigious

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

knockout competition.

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

are the defending champions.

Schedule

Format

The competition began with eight groups of five teams. The five clubs initially competing in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

(

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

and

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

( Heart of Midlothian and

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...

) and Conference League ( St Mirren) received a bye to the second round. The group stage consists of 40 teams: all remaining teams that competed across the

SPFL The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the national men's association football league in Scotland. The league was formed in June 2013 following a merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. As we ...

in 2023–24, the 2023–24 Highland Football League champions ( Buckie Thistle) and runners-up (

Brechin City Brechin City Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the townDespite the name of the football club, Brechin is not an official city. Brechin was historically known as a city because it has a cathedral. of Brechin in Angus. The club w ...

), and the 2023–24 Lowland Football League champions (

East Kilbride East Kilbride (; gd, Cille Bhrìghde an Ear ) is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. It was also designated Scotland's first new town on 6 May 1947. The area lies on a rais ...

). The winners of each of the eight groups, as well as the three best runners-up, progressed to the second round (last 16). At this stage, the competition reverts to the traditional

knock-out A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking ...

format. The three group winners with the highest points total and the European entrants were seeded.

Bonus point system

The traditional point system of awarding three points for a win and one point for a draw was used. In addition, for each group stage match that finishes in a draw, a penalty shoot-out took place, with the winner being awarded a bonus point.

Group stage

The teams were seeded according to their final league positions in 2023–24 and drawn into eight groups, with each group comprising one team from each pot. The draw for the group stage took place on 29 May 2024 and was broadcast live on the Premier Sports and SPFL

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channels.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Best runners-up

Knockout phase

Second round

Draw and seeding

, Heart of Midlothian,

and St Mirren entered the competition at this stage, due to their participation in

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

club competitions. Teams in bold advanced to the quarter-finals.

Matches

Quarter-finals

Draw

The draw for the quarter-finals took place on 18 August 2024 following the Celtic v Hibernian match live on Premier Sports 1.

Matches

Media coverage

The domestic broadcasting rights for the competition are held exclusively by Premier Sports, who will broadcast between 12 and 16 live matches per season, as well as highlights. Premier Sports further announced they would stream up to 25 additional games from the group stage on their website. The Irish broadcaster will also broadcast all games live from the second round onwards, either streamed or televised, subject to blackout rules. The following matches will be broadcast live:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2024-25 Scottish League Cup Scottish League Cup seasons League Cup League Cup Current association football seasons