The Thuringia Cup (German: Thüringenpokal) is an annual

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 ...

competition in

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

, Germany. The

Thuringia Football Association The Thuringia Football Association (German: Thüringer Fußballverband - TFV), is the umbrella organization of the football clubs in the German state Thuringia and covers nine football districts. The TFV was founded in 1990 and has its headquarters ...

(German: Thüringer Fußball-Verband, TFV) is its governing body. The cup winner qualifies for next season's

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considere ...

. It is one of the 21 regional cup competitions in Germany.

Qualification and competition format

All Thuringian clubs competing in

3. Liga The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga. The modern 3. Liga was formed for t ...

Regionalliga The Regionalliga () is the fourth tier in the German football league system. Until 1974, it was the second tier in Germany. In 1994, it was introduced as the third tier. Upon the creation of the new nationwide 3. Liga in 2008, it became the four ...

NOFV-Oberliga Süd The NOFV-Oberliga Süd is the fifth tier of the German football league system in the southern states of the former East Germany. It covers the German states of Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Saxony and southern Brandenburg. It is one of fourteen Oberl ...

Thüringenliga The Thüringenliga is the sixth tier (VI) of the German football league system and the highest league in the German state of Thuringia (german: Thüringen). Until the introduction of the 3. Liga in 2008 it was the fifth tier of the league system, u ...

and Landesklasse Thüringen are eligible to play in the cup. Additionally the winners of the Bezirkspokal competitions qualify. Starting with the 2007–08 season only one team per club may participate. Thecompetition consists of 6 rounds played in a knock-out format. There is only one match per round, if scores are level after 90 minutes, there is a 2x15 minutes

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 ...

followed by 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 pen ...

, if necessary. Fixtures are determined by a draw. Clubs from 3rd Liga and several other teams (determined by a draw) get a first-round bye.

Finals

The finals:

Records

Record winners are FC Carl Zeiss Jena, having won the title 13 times, followed by FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt (9). The highest attendance record was set on 15 November 2005 in Erfurt. After rivals FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt and FC Carl Zeiss Jena had only met in the final in the preceding years, they met in the quarter-final of the 2005–06 season. Jena took home a 4–2 penalty shootout win in front of 11,000 spectators.

References

Sources

*''Deutschlands Fußball in Zahlen'', An annual publication with tables and results from the Bundesliga to Verbandsliga/Landesliga, publisher: DSFS

External links

Fussball.de: Thuringia Cup

All results of the Thuringia Cup
{{Football in Thuringia Recurring sporting events established in 1991 Football cup competitions in Germany Football competitions in Thuringia 1991 establishments in Germany