The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier
knockout cup competition in
French football
Association football is the most popular sport in France. The French Football Federation (FFF, Fédération Française de Football) is the national governing body and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of association football in the cou ...
organized by the
French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in
1917
Events
Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix.
January
* January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Fo ...
and is open to all amateur and professional
football clubs in France, including clubs based in the
overseas departments and territories. Between 1917 and 1919, the competition was called the Coupe Charles Simon, in tribute of Charles Simon, a French
sportsman and the founder of the French Interfederal Committee (the ancestor of the French Football Federation), who died in 1915 while serving in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. The final is played at the
Stade de France and the winner qualifies for the group stage of the
UEFA 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. ...
and a place in the
Trophée des Champions
The Trophée des Champions (, ) is a French association football trophy contested in an annual match between the champions of Ligue 1 and the winners of the Coupe de France. It is equivalent to the super cups found in many other countries.
His ...
match. A concurrent
women's
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...
tournament is also held, the
Coupe de France Féminine
A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors.
The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...
.
Combined with random draws and one-off matches (no replays), the Coupe de France can be difficult for the bigger clubs to win. The competition is usually beneficial to the amateur clubs as it forces higher-ranked clubs, usually professional clubs, to play as the away team when drawn against lower-league opposition if they are competing two levels below them. Despite the advantages, only three amateur clubs have reached the final since
professionalism was introduced in
French football
Association football is the most popular sport in France. The French Football Federation (FFF, Fédération Française de Football) is the national governing body and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of association football in the cou ...
in 1932:
Calais RUFC
Calais Racing Union FC (Calais RUFC) was a French football club based in Calais, France.
Calais RUFC was founded in 1974 after a merger of two local clubs and, as an amateur club, reached the 2000 Coupe de France Final which it lost to top-fligh ...
in
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...
,
US Quevilly
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
in 2012 and
Les Herbiers VF
Les Herbiers Vendée Football is a French football club based in Les Herbiers, Vendée. It was founded in 1919. They play at the Stade Massabielle, which has a capacity of 5,000 people. The colours of the club are red and black.
From the 2015 ...
in
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...
. Two clubs from outside
Ligue 1 have won the competition,
Le Havre
Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very ...
in
1959
Events January
* January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance.
* January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...
and
Guingamp
Guingamp (; ) is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France. With a population of 6,895 as of 2017, Guingamp is one of the smallest towns in Europe to have a top-tier professional football team: En Avant Gui ...
in
2009. The reigning champions are
Nantes, who defeated
Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...
in the
final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
* Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...
of the
2021–22 competition.
History
![CA Paris - Le Havre 1920](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/CA_Paris_-_Le_Havre_1920.jpg)
The Coupe de France was created on 15 January 1917 by the ''French Interfederal Committee'' (CFI), an early predecessor of the
French Football Federation. The idea was pushed by the federation's general secretary
Henri Delaunay and under ''
union sacrée The Sacred Union (french: Union Sacrée, ) was a political truce in France in which the left-wing agreed, during World War I, not to oppose the government or call any strikes. Made in the name of patriotism, it stood in opposition to the pledge mad ...
'', the competition was declared open to all clubs, amateur and professional, though
professionalism in
French football
Association football is the most popular sport in France. The French Football Federation (FFF, Fédération Française de Football) is the national governing body and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of association football in the cou ...
at the time was non-existent. The major clubs in France objected to the notion that all clubs should be allowed to enter. However, the federation dispelled their complaints and declared the competition would remain as is. Due to the minimal requirements to enter, the first competition featured 48 clubs. By 1948, the number had increased to 1,000 and at present, the competition features more than 7,000 clubs. Due to the initial increase in clubs, the federation created preliminary rounds beginning with the 1919–20 season. The following season, they added a second preliminary round. As of today, the competition contains eight regional rounds with some
regions
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
containing as many as ten.
The first Coupe de France victors were
Olympique de Pantin who defeated
FC Lyon
Football Club de Lyon is a French sports club. It was established on 17 November 1893, and is notable for its rugby and football sections.
Honours
Rugby
* French championship:
** Champions: 1909–10
Football
* Coupe de France
The Coupe ...
3–0 at the Stade de la Légion Saint-Michel in Paris in front of 2,000 spectators. The following year, the competition was shifted to the
Parc des Princes and drew 10,000 supporters to the final that saw
CASG Paris defeat
Olympique de Paris
Olympique de Paris was a French association football team based in Paris which existed from 1908 to 1926. Founded with the name Olympique de Pantin, it won the Coupe de France in 1918 and played in the finals in 1919 and 1921. It merged with Red S ...
3–2. The competition alternated between many stadiums during its early years playing at the
Stade Pershing
Stade Pershing () was a multi-purpose stadium in the Bois de Vincennes in Paris, France. It was used mostly for football matches and hosted the final of the Coupe de France on four occasions. It hosted the Inter-Allied Games in 1919 and the fir ...
from 1920–1924 before switching to the
Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir in
Colombes. The competition lasted a decade there before returning to the Parc des Princes in 1938. In 1941, the final was held at the
Stade de Paris. The following year, the final returned to Colombes and remained there until moving to the Parc des Princes permanently following its renovation, which made it the largest in terms of attendance in France.
There are vastly more amateur than professional clubs in France, and the competition regularly produces surprises. The best performance by an amateur club in the competition is usually awarded the ''Petit Poucet Plaque''. One of the competition's biggest upsets occurred in February 1957 when Algerian club
SCU El Biar defeated
Stade de Reims who had players such as
Robert Jonquet
Robert Henri Jonquet (3 May 1925 – 17 December 2008) was a French former football defender. He played the majority of his professional career for the club Reims, winning five French championships and appearing in two European Cup finals. He ...
,
Michel Hidalgo
Michel François Hidalgo (22 March 1933 – 26 March 2020) was a French professional footballer and manager. He was the head coach of the French national team from 1976 to 1984, with whom he won the UEFA Euro 1984 on home soil, also reaching th ...
,
Léon Glovacki
Léon Glovacki (19 February 1928 – 9 September 2009) was a French football striker.
Personal life
Glovacki was born in France, and was of Polish descent. He was an international for the France national football team
The France national ...
, and
Just Fontaine
Just Louis Fontaine (born 18 August 1933) is a French former professional footballer. A prolific forward, he is best known for scoring the most goals in a single edition of the FIFA World Cup, with thirteen in six matches in 1958. In 2004, Pel ...
. One of the more recent successes of an amateur club occurred during the
1999–2000 competition when
Championnat de France amateur club
Calais RUFC
Calais Racing Union FC (Calais RUFC) was a French football club based in Calais, France.
Calais RUFC was founded in 1974 after a merger of two local clubs and, as an amateur club, reached the 2000 Coupe de France Final which it lost to top-fligh ...
reached
the final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
. Calais, composed of doctors, dock workers, and office clerks, started the competition in the 5th round and, after defeating fellow amateurs, beat clubs
Lille
Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...
, Langon-Castets,
Cannes
Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. T ...
,
Strasbourg, and
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...
to advance to the final. Calais' road to the final was a prime example of the major advantages amateur clubs had with the club playing all of its matches at home beginning with the Round of 64 match. In the final the club lost to
Nantes 2–1 despite scoring first.
Professional clubs have continued to express their displeasure with the advantages amateur clubs receive in the competition with many of their complaints being directly associated with their hosting of matches. Coupe de France rules explicitly state that teams drawn first during the draw are granted hosting duties for the round, however, if the club drawn second is competing two levels below the club drawn first, then the hosting duties will be given to the second club drawn. Many clubs have subsequently complained that, due to the amateur clubs not having adequate funds, the stadiums they play in are extremely unkempt. The resulting differences led to the clubs represented by the
Ligue de Football Professionnel
The Ligue de Football Professionnel (, ''Professional Football League''), commonly known as the LFP, is a French governing body that runs the major professional football leagues in France. It was founded in 1944 and serves under the authority o ...
forming their own cup competition, the
Coupe de la Ligue. More recently, amateur clubs have begun to move to more established stadiums for their Coupe de France matches with their primary reason being to earn more money at the gate due to more established stadiums having the ability to carry more spectators.
The winner of the Coupe de France trophy normally holds on to the trophy for one year to put in on display at their headquarters before returning it to the French Football Federation. In the early 1980s, the cup was stolen, but was retrieved by the authorities quickly. Since 1927, the
President of France
The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (french: Président de la République française), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency i ...
has always attended the cup final and presented the trophy to the winning team's
captain.
Gaston Doumergue
Pierre Paul Henri Gaston Doumergue (; 1 August 1863 in Aigues-Vives, Gard18 June 1937 in Aigues-Vives) was a French politician of the Third Republic. He served as President of France from 13 June 1924 to 13 June 1931.
Biography
Doumergue cam ...
was the first French president to attend the final.
Competition format
Similar to other countries' cup competitions, the Coupe de France is a
knockout tournament
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, a ...
with pairings for each round drawn at random. Each tie is played through a single leg. If a match ends in a draw, penalties are held. Prior to 1967, the competition had no
extra time nor
penalty shootouts and instead allowed replays, similar to the
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
. This style was abandoned following three straight draws between
Olympique Lyonnais and amateur club
Angoulême CFC
Angoulême (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Engoulaeme''; oc, Engoleime) is a commune, the prefecture of the Charente department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern France.
The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Angoumoisins' ...
, which resulted in the federation
flipping a coin to decide which club advanced. For the
1968–69 season, extra time was introduced and, two years later, the penalty shootout was instituted. Following the
1974–75 season, replays were scrapped.
There are a total of 14 rounds in the competition. However, rounds in the competition are determined through each
region in France
France is divided into eighteen administrative regions (french: régions, singular ), of which thirteen are located in metropolitan France (in Europe), while the other five are overseas regions (not to be confused with the overseas collecti ...
with one of the main reasons being to reduce travel costs. Depending on the region, the number of rounds may vary from four to as many as eight with each region sending a set number of clubs to the 7th round. The regions conduct rounds of matches up until the 7th round when professional clubs enter the competition. All of the clubs are then split and drawn against each other randomly, regardless of regional affiliation though geographical pots are made prior to the draw. In the
overseas departments and territories, territories such as
Guadeloupe, Martinique,
French Guiana
French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic coast of South America in the Guianas. ...
, and
Réunion establish their own knockout competition, similar to the regions in France, though only one club from each region is allowed to enter. This number later rose to two for some overseas regions. Territories like
Mayotte
Mayotte (; french: Mayotte, ; Shimaore: ''Maore'', ; Kibushi: ''Maori'', ), officially the Department of Mayotte (french: Département de Mayotte), is an overseas department and region and single territorial collectivity of France. It is loca ...
,
French Polynesia, and
New Caledonia allow the winner of their cup competitions to enter the 7th round, such as when
AS Mont-Dore
AS Mont-Dore is a New Caledonia football team playing in the local top division, the New Caledonia Division Honneur.
The team is based in Le Mont-Dore, a commune in the suburbs of Nouméa, the capital city of the French territory.
Honours
New ...
won the 2009 edition of the
New Caledonia Cup to earn qualification for the
2009–10 Coupe de France.
As well as being presented with the trophy, the winning team also qualifies for the
UEFA 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. ...
. If the winner has already qualified for 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 competi ...
via the league, the UEFA Europa League place goes to the next highest placed finisher in the league table. Overseas teams are also eligible for UEFA qualification.
Format for the
2021–22 Coupe de France
The 2021–22 Coupe de France is the 105th season of the main football cup competition of France. The competition is organised by the French Football Federation (FFF) and is open to all clubs in French football, as well as clubs from the overseas ...
* In the first two rounds the teams from district and regional leagues enter.
*
National 3 teams enter at the third round stage.
*
National 2 teams enter at the fourth round stage.
*
National
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, c ...
teams enter at the fifth round stage.
*
Ligue 2 teams enter at the seventh round stage.
*
Ligue 1 teams enter at the round of 64 stage.
Numbering
In Coupe de France matches, players are restricted to wearing the shirt numbers 1–20 regardless of the player's squad number. The starters are given the numbers 1–11.
Overseas teams
The cup was open to overseas teams starting in the
1961–62 season. In the
1974–75 season, the
Golden Star was the first overseas team to beat a mainland team. The Martinique club beat US Melun 2–1 in the replay after 1–1 in the first game. The Golden Star was then the first overseas team to reach the round of 64. In the
1988–89 season, Le Geldar de Kourou was the first overseas team to reach the round of 32. In the
2019–20 season,
JS Saint-Pierroise
Jeunesse Sportive Saint-Pierroise or JSSP is a French football club from Saint-Pierre, Réunion. Its most notable player is Roger Milla, from the Cameroon national football team.
Achievements
*Réunion Premier League: 21
::1956, 1957, 1959, 19 ...
was the second overseas team to reach the round of 32. In the
following season,
Club Franciscain
Club Franciscain is a football (soccer), football club in Martinique, playing in the town of Le François.
It plays in the Martinique's first division, the Martinique Championnat National.
Honours
*Martinique Championnat National
**Champions (1 ...
was the third overseas team to reach the round of 32.
Sponsorship
The Coupe de France does not have a primary sponsor of the competition, but allows sponsors of the
French Football Federation to showcase themselves on club's kits at the expense of the club's sponsors. Among them include
SFR
SFR (; ''Société française du radiotéléphone'', ) is a French telecommunications company.
As of December 2015, it had 21.9 million customers in Metropolitan France for mobile services, and provided 6.35 million households with high-spee ...
,
Caisse d'Epargne
Caisse, a French word, may refer to:
*Caisse Desjardins, an association of credit unions in Quebec
*Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears, a road-bicycle racing team
*Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, a public pension fund in Quebec
*Caisse nati ...
,
Crédit Agricole,
Sita-Suez, and
Carrefour
Carrefour () is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, France. The eighth-largest retailer in the world by revenue, it operates a chain of hypermarkets, groceries stores and convenience stores, whic ...
.
Records
Paris Saint-Germain
Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...
have a record of fourteen Coupe de France titles, following the result of the 2020–21 cup. PSG and
Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...
have appeared in the most finals, having played in nineteen each. The Parisian club won a cup
'double' (i.e. the Coupe de France and the
Coupe de la Ligue in the same season) in 1995, 1998, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2020. Marseille are one of four clubs who have suffered two consecutive finals defeats, as the
Bouches-du-Rhône
Bouches-du-Rhône ( , , ; oc, Bocas de Ròse ; "Mouths of the Rhône") is a department in Southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the south. Its prefecture and ...
-based club lost to Paris Saint-Germain in
2006 and then to
Sochaux
Sochaux () is a commune in the Doubs department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France.
Geography
Sochaux lies east of Montbéliard, and southeast of Paris.
Population
Inhabitants are known as ''Sochaliens''.
Economy
S ...
the
following season.
Due to the early dominance of Parisian clubs during the early run of the competition and along with PSG's consistency, the
Île-de-France
The Île-de-France (, ; literally "Isle of France") is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France. Centred on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the country and often called the ''Région parisienne'' (; en, Pa ...
region has the most Coupe de France champions, having produced 25. The region is followed by
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (; or , ; commonly shortened to PACA; en, Provence-Alps-French Riviera, italic=yes; also branded as Région Sud) is one of the eighteen administrative regions of France, the far southeastern on the mainland. Its pref ...
, with Marseille being the region's most successful club.
Managers
Guy Roux
Guy Marcel Roux (; born 18 October 1938) is a French former football player and manager known for being in charge of AJ Auxerre for more than 40 years and for leading the team to national and worldwide prominence.
Managerial career
A native of C ...
and
André Cheuva
André Cheuva (30 May 1908 – 5 February 1989) was a French footballer who played midfielder. After retiring, he became a manager, and won 4 Coupe de France
The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier k ...
share the honour of having managed four Coupe de France winning clubs. The most successful players are
Marquinhos
Marcos Aoás Corrêa (born 14 May 1994), known as Marquinhos, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a defender for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain, which he captains, and the Brazil national team. Mainly a centre-back, he can ...
and
Marco Verratti
Marco Verratti (; born 5 November 1992) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and the Italy national team. He is often considered as one of the best midfielders in the wor ...
, who both won six titles.
Éric Pécout of Nantes and
Jean-Pierre Papin
Jean-Pierre Roger Guillaume Papin (born 5 November 1963) is a French football manager and former professional player who played as a forward. He was named the Ballon d'Or and IFFHS World's Top Goal Scorer of the Year in 1991. Papin was known for ...
are joint top scorers of the competition final, having each converted a
hat-trick
A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three.
Origin
The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...
in their only appearances in the ultimate match. In 1947, Roger Vandooren scored the fastest goal in the final's history converting after 29 seconds for his club
Lille
Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...
in their 2–0 win over
Strasbourg.
Media coverage
France
The Coupe de France currently has a broadcasting agreement with
France Télévisions
France Télévisions (; stylized since 2018 as ) is the French national public television broadcaster. It is a state-owned company formed from the integration of the public television channels France 2 (formerly Antenne 2) and France 3 (form ...
, the French public national television broadcaster, and
Eurosport
Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its international sports unit, it operates two main channels— Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territories, ...
since the 1996–97 until 2021–22 season. The Coupe de France final is co-aired on
France 2
France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews.
Since 3:20 CET on 7 A ...
since 1975 until 2022 (exclude 1984 until 2006).
Free
Pay
Winners
Performance by club
References
External links
Official page on FFF siteCoupe de France summarySOCCERWAY)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coupe De France
1
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...