The Scottish Junior Cup is an annual football competition organised by the
Scottish Junior Football Association
The Scottish Junior Football Association (SJFA) is an affiliated national association of the Scottish Football Association and is the governing body for the junior grade of football in Scotland. The term "junior" refers to the level of football ...
. The competition has been held every year since the inception of the
SJFA
The Scottish Junior Football Association (SJFA) is an affiliated national association of the Scottish Football Association and is the governing body for the junior grade of football (soccer), football in Scotland. The term "junior" refers to the ...
in 1886 and, as of the 2022–23 edition, 108 teams compete in the tournament. The cup has an unseeded knockout format with semi-finals over two legs and the final played at a neutral venue, always that of an
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 ...
club.
Since the 2006–07 season, the winner of the Junior Cup Final has qualified for the following season's senior
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Macron Scottish Cup for sponsorship reasons.
Auchinleck Talbot
Auchinleck Talbot Football Club is a Scottish football club based in Auchinleck, East Ayrshire. They currently play in the .
The club is also a member of the Scottish Junior Football Association, and have won the Scottish Junior Cup on a reco ...
are the current holders, after defeating
Yoker Athletic
Yoker Athletic Football Club are a Scottish football club based in Clydebank near Glasgow. Yoker is an area of Glasgow adjacent to Clydebank, however Yoker's stadium lies just outside the Glasgow boundary. Nicknamed the ''Whe Ho'', the club wer ...
2–0 on 4 June 2022 at
Rugby Park
Rugby Park, also known as The BBSP Stadium Rugby Park for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium situated in the Scottish town of Kilmarnock. It was first used in 1899 and is the home of Kilmarnock F.C. Rugby Park has also been used for con ...
,
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. ...
.
Format
The competition is open to all member clubs of Scottish Junior Football Association, and all tier 6 clubs and below on payment of entry fee, subject to the approval of the committee.
Matches which are tied after 90 minutes proceed directly to penalty kicks, and semi-finals take place as single matches. Prior to the 2020–21 season, drawn matches were replayed and semi-finals took place as two legged ties.
History
The Cup has been competed for since the 1886–87 season, when Fairfield Govan became the first winners. The SJFA purchased an exact replica in 2007, to replace the original which was showing its age.
Auchinleck Talbot are the most successful club, winning the trophy 14 times to date, including three times in a row from 1986 to 1988 and 2018 to 2022 (no team won in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
The record attendance for a Junior Cup Final is 77,650 for the 1951 final between Petershill and Irvine Meadow XI.
In 2010,
Linlithgow Rose
Linlithgow Rose Football Club are a Scottish football club based in Linlithgow, West Lothian. The team plays in the East of Scotland Football League Premier Division, the sixth tier of Scottish football, having moved from the junior leagues i ...
lifted the Scottish Junior Cup for the fourth time in their history and third in a decade. They now join a small group of teams that have managed to lift the cup more than three times.
Sponsorship
The cup's long-term sponsor, the OVD Rum company, which, as of 2006, had an eighteen-year-long association with the competition, withdrew their backing before the start of the 2006–07 competition. Unlike most other sponsored contests whose names change often, OVD had become so ingrained into the Scottish Junior Cup that it was often simply referred to as the "OVD Junior Cup". The Scottish Junior Football Association announced in 2006 that they would provide the sponsorship and prize money themselves, meaning the cup would be known simply as the ''Scottish Junior Cup''. A new sponsor was found during the 2006–07 competition for the semi-finals and final -
Scottish Citylink
Scottish Citylink is a long-distance express coach operator in Scotland and Ireland (where it operates as Irish Citylink) and England (where it operates as Stansted Citylink). The company was formed as a subsidiary of Scottish Transport Group i ...
, a long-distance coach operator. The competition was sponsored by
Emirates
Emirates may refer to:
* United Arab Emirates, a Middle Eastern country
* Emirate, any territory ruled by an emir
** Gulf emirates, emirates located on the Persian Gulf
** Emirates of the United Arab Emirates, the individual emirates
* The Emirat ...
between 2009 and 2013. The tournament was without a sponsor in 2013–14, with
Barr Construction
Barr Construction was a major Scottish contracting organisation operating throughout the United Kingdom.
History
The company started in the late 19th century as a joinery firm known as W & J Barr & Sons and gradually expanded into civil engine ...
sponsoring the final only, then the SJFA entered a partnership with Dementia Scotland for the latter stages of the 2014–15 competition.
The cup had been without a sponsor since ETHX Energy sponsored the 2015-16 competition, however from 2018, sportswear company Macron has sponsored the tournament.
Finals
* (R) = Won after a replay/2nd replay.
* (aet) = Result after
extra time
Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...
.
* (P) = Won on penalties.
Club Performance
Clubs which are currently members of the SJFA are indicated in bold.
Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...