The Danish Cup ( da, Landspokalturneringen; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "

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 ...

" cup competition in

Danish football Association football is the most popular sport in Denmark, with 331,693 players and 1,647 clubs registered () under the Danish FA. The game was introduced into Denmark by British sailors. Kjøbenhavns Boldklub is the oldest club outside of the ...

, run by the

Danish Football Association The Danish Football Union ( da, Dansk Boldspil-Union; DBU) is the governing body of football in Denmark. It is the organization of the Danish football clubs and runs the professional Danish football leagues and the men's and women's national te ...

. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will qualify 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. ...

tournament the following year, where they (as of the 2009–10 season) will enter in the third qualifying round. The latest edition, 2017-18 Danish Cup, was won by Superliga-side Brøndby, beating Superliga-side Silkeborg 3–1 on 10 May 2018 at Parken Stadium, thereby winning their first domestic trophy since

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. The final traditionally takes place on ''Kristi Himmelfarts Dag'' ( The Ascension) and it is always played in the Danish national stadium Parken. However in the 1991 and 1992 seasons the final had been rescheduled to Odense Stadion and Århus Stadion respectively due to the renovation of Parken. Furthermore, in 2011, because Ascension Thursday fell on 2 June and an international match date was already allotted for this date, the Danish Cup final was played two weeks earlier on 22 May, which coincided with the annual Copenhagen Marathon. The club with most final appearances is AGF with 12 finals, having won 9 of them. Attention has been brought to the fact that the final on most occasions unpractically is played before the last rounds of the league, which can open up for speculation in the benefit of losing league games at the end of the season especially for the cup runner-up if the winner is heading for the league championship. Recently former AaB player

David Nielsen David Jean Nielsen (born 1 December 1976) is a Danish former professional footballer and manager. He played for a number of Danish clubs, as well as Fortuna Düsseldorf in Germany and English clubs Grimsby Town, Wimbledon and Norwich City. His ...

claimed in his autobiography that after losing the cup final in 2004 to FC Copenhagen, he deliberately missed opportunities to score against them when AaB and FC Copenhagen met in the final league match because FCK would win the championship (and thereby the double) and land AaB in the

UEFA 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 ...

as losing cup finalists.

Sponsorship

The Danish FA sanctioned nation-wide cup tournament has been sponsored since the 1990. File:blank.png , Giro Cup
(1990 to 1995–96)
Sponsor: GiroBank File:Compaq Cup logo 1999.svg , Compaq Cup
(1996–97 to 1998–99)
Sponsor:

Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation (sometimes abbreviated to CQ prior to a 2007 rebranding) was an American information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced ...

File:blank.png , DONG Cup
(Spring 2000–2004)
Sponsor: DONG File:Ekstra Bladet Cup 2008.svg , Ekstra Bladet Cup
(2008–09 to 2010–11)
Sponsor:

Ekstra Bladet ''Ekstra Bladet'' is a Danish tabloid newspaper, published by JP/Politikens Hus in Copenhagen.About
(in Danish) ''E ...

File:DBU Pokalen logo.svg , DBU Pokalen
(2011–12 to 2017–18)
No cup sponsor File:blank.png , Sydbank Pokalen
(2018–19 to 2021–22)
Sponsor: Sydbank File:DBU Pokalen logo.svg , Pokalen
(2022–23)
No cup sponsor

Format

Each club may only have one team in the tournament (their first team). If a match (except one of the two-legged semifinals, except if the 2nd match's result gives an

aggregate Aggregate or aggregates may refer to: Computing and mathematics * collection of objects that are bound together by a root entity, otherwise known as an aggregate root. The aggregate root guarantees the consistency of changes being made within the ...

tie, including the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

) ends in a tie, two fifteen-minute

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 only ...

periods will be played, with

penalty kicks A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...

if the tie remains after the extra time.

The participants

The teams are not seeded, but the lowest placed team from the previous season will always get the home pitch advantage.

Until 2005/06

*1st round, 64 teams **48 teams qualified through preliminary cups held by the regional associations. **16 teams from the 2nd division (all teams) *2nd round, 32+8 teams **32 teams from the 1st round (winners) **8 teams from the 1st division (9th–16th placed) *3rd round, 20+8 teams **20 teams from the 2nd round **6 teams from the 1st division (3rd–8th placed) **2 teams from the Superliga (11th–12th, the relegated teams which are now in the 1st division) *4th round, 14+6 teams **14 teams from the 3rd round **4 teams from the Superliga (7th–10th) **2 teams from the 1st division (1st–2nd, the promoted teams which are now in the Superliga) *5th round, 10+6 teams **10 teams from the 4th round **6 teams from the Superliga (1st–6th) *Quarterfinals, 8 teams **8 teams from the 5th round – and so on until the finals.

From 2006/07

*1st round, 88 teams **48 teams qualified through preliminary cups held by the regional associations. **28 teams from the 2nd divisions (all teams) **12 teams from the 1st division (5th–16th placed) *2nd round, 44+12 teams **44 teams from the 1st round (winners) **4 teams from the 1st division (1st–4th placed) **8 teams from the Superliga (5th–12th placed). *3rd round, 28+4 teams **28 teams from the 2nd round **4 teams from the Superliga (1st–4th placed) *4th round, 16 teams **16 teams from the 3rd round *Quarterfinals, 8 teams **8 teams from the 4th round – and so on until the finals.

From 2021/22

*1st round, 92 teams **4 teams qualified through preliminary cups held by the regional associations. **12 teams from the 3rd divisions **12 teams from the 2nd divisions **12 teams from the 1st division *2nd round, 58+6 teams **44 teams from the 1st round (winners) **6 teams from the Superliga (5th–12th placed). *3rd round, 28+4 teams **26 teams from the 2nd round **6 teams from the Superliga (1st–6th placed) *4th round, 16 teams **16 teams from the 3rd round *Quarterfinals, 8 teams **8 teams from the 4th round – and so on until the finals.

Finals

Results by team

Footnotes

References

External links

Page on the website of the DBU

RSSSF.com
Danish Cup summary
SOCCERWAY) {{National football Cups (UEFA region) 1

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