The Slovenian Football Cup ( sl, Pokal Nogometne zveze Slovenije, ) is the top knockout tournament of

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...

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 ...

and the second most important football competition in Slovenia after the

Slovenian PrvaLiga The Slovenian PrvaLiga ( sl, Prva slovenska nogometna liga, ), currently named Prva liga Telemach due to sponsorship reasons, also known by the abbreviation 1. SNL, is the top level of the Slovenian football league system. Contested by ten club ...

championship. The cup was established in 1991 following the

breakup of Yugoslavia The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...

. Since 2020, it has been known as Pokal Pivovarna Union after its headline sponsor, the Union Brewery. As of 2022, a total of 17 clubs have reached the cup final; the most successful side in the history of the competition is

Maribor Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, the seat of the Drava sta ...

, who have triumphed 9 times in their 14 cup final appearances. They are followed by Olimpija and

Koper Koper (; it, Capodistria, hr, Kopar) is the fifth largest city in Slovenia. Located in the Istrian region in the southwestern part of the country, approximately five kilometres () south of the border with Italy and 20 kilometres () from Triest ...

, who both won four titles. Primorje hold the record for most appearances in the final without winning the title, finishing as runners-up in three consecutive finals between 1996 and 1998.

Aluminij Aluminij is a Bosnian aluminium manufacturing company with headquarters in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2016, it was one of the largest regional producers of aluminium with sales of 156,500 tons of aluminium, and third-largest exporte ...

and Nafta 1903 are the only sides from outside the top flight which managed to reach the cup final, having finished as runners-up in 2002 and 2020, respectively. Koper are the defending champions, having beaten Bravo 3–1 in the 2022 final.

Format

From the 2022–23 season onwards, the number of teams in the first round has increased from 24 to 120, and any registered team in the country can participate in the preliminary rounds. Four teams that represent Slovenia in

UEFA competitions UEFA competitions (french: competitions de l'UEFA), referred improperly by the mass media as European football, are the set of tournaments organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), generally in professional and amateur asso ...

joins the competition in the second round. Only one match is played in all rounds, with

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 ...

and penalty shoot-out if necessary. The draw is no longer delegated with seeded and unseeded teams, and lower league teams no longer automatically play at home. Until 2021, the Slovenian Cup was contested by a total of 28 clubs: 18 lower league sides that qualified via regional cups organised by the Intercommunal Football Associations, and 10 teams that competed in the

the previous season. In the first round proper, 18 lower league clubs were joined by the six lower placed top flight clubs. The twelve winners were then joined by the best four top flight clubs who automatically entered the second round proper. The games were played in a single leg knock-out format until the quarter-finals and semi-finals when home and away matches were played and aggregate scores were taken into account. Since 2005 the final is also held as a single-legged match, although it was a two-legged affair in the period between 1994 and 2004.

List of finals

Key

List of winners

Teams shown in ''italics'' are no longer in existence.

Notes

References

External links

Slovenian Cup
at NZS

at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation {{Football in Slovenia 1

1991 establishments in Slovenia