The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,knockout
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 strikin ...
Scottish Football Association
The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for ...
, it is the third oldest existing football competition in the world, having commenced in the 1873–74 season just two years after the first
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 competit ...
. The winners are awarded the world's oldest trophy, minted in 1885.
Celtic hold the record for most wins with 40, and the most final appearances with 59. Rangers F.C. are the current holders, having beaten Heart of Midlothian F.C. 2–0 in the 2022 final.
History
At the time of the cup's first season Queen's Park were by far the dominant force in Scottish football, and no other team had even managed to score a goal against them until 1875, eight years after their formation. This early dominance meant they were invited into the first FA Cup season and in season 1883–84 they came close to a cup double, winning the Scottish Cup but losing the
FA Cup Final
The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official attend ...
to
Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. ...
. They again met Blackburn Rovers in the following season's Final but were defeated once again. Other Scottish teams competed in the FA Cup such as Partick Thistle and 3rd Lanark RV and continued to compete until 1887, when the Scottish Football Association banned its members from taking any further part in the "English Cup". By the time the
Scottish Football League
The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km sou ...
was founded in the 1890–91 season Queen's Park had been eclipsed by many of the league clubs, they finally agreed to enter the competition in the 1900–01 season, they finished seventh in their first season. Their demise was reflected in their Scottish Cup results, although they reached four finals after the foundation of the league they could only win one and their 1893 success was their last, reaching only one more final in 1900.
Dumbarton
Dumbarton (; also sco, Dumbairton; ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven, Dunbartonshire, River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an estimated population of 1 ...
filled the void left by Queen's Park for a time but like all Scottish football competitions the Scottish Cup would come to be dominated by the
Old Firm
The Old Firm is the collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are by far the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply ...
of Celtic and Rangers.
In 1909 the cup was withheld by the SFA after a riot broke out following a replay between Rangers and Celtic. The first match was drawn 2–2 and the second 1–1.
The cup was not competed for between 1914 and 1919 due to
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 fight ...
.
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
prevented competition between 1939 and 1945 although the
Scottish War Emergency Cup The Scottish War Emergency Cup was a temporary competition held at the start of the Second World War, 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 cl ...
A draw in the final used to result in the match being replayed at a later date. Since the 1981 final, however, the result has always been decided on the day, with a
penalty shootout
The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...
if required 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 ...
List of Scottish football champions
The Scottish football champions are the winners of the highest league in Scottish football, namely the Scottish Football League (SFL) from 1890 until 1998, the Scottish Premier League (SPL) from 1998 until 2013 and the Scottish Premiership the ...
RSSSF
The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...