The 2010–11

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League cup in ...

is the 65th season of Scotland's second-most prestigious football knockout competition, the Scottish League Cup, also known as the Co-operative Insurance Cup for sponsorship reasons. The competition started in July 2010 with the First Round and ended in Spring 2011 with the Final. Rangers are the current title holder, having beaten

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

in the 2011 final.

Format

The competition is a

single elimination A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

knock-out competition. In each round, fixtures are determined by random draw. Fixtures are played to a finish, with

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play 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 if the game is required t ...

and then penalties used in the event of ties. The competition is open to all clubs in the

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...

and

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct 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&nbs ...

. Clubs involved in European competitions are given a bye to the third round to avoid congestion of fixtures. *First round: The 30 teams from the previous season's Scottish Football League enter *Second round: The 15 winners of the First Round are joined by the 7 of last season's SPL sides not in Europe ( Heart of Midlothian, St Johnstone,

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

, Hamilton Academical, St Mirren,

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

and

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...

) who were relegated from the SPL *Third round: The 11 winners of the Second Round are joined by the 5 SPL sides in Europe ( Rangers,

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

, Hibernian,

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

) *Quarter-finals: The 8 winners of the third round play *Semi-finals: The 4 winners of the quarter-finals play *Final: The 2 winners of the semi-finals play

Adjustments from previous editions

Club Entry Points – The format of the first and second rounds was adjusted for this season. Previously the club promoted into the SPL entered in the Second Round alongside the other non-European SPL sides, with the side relegated to the First Division entering in the first round alongside the other SFL sides. However, this situation has been reversed, meaning Inverness Caledonian Thistle entered the tournament in the First Round – despite being promoted to SPL; and Falkirk entered in the second round – despite being relegated. The 2009–10 tournament had seen both such sides enter in the first round, plus 11th in the SPL – as there were 6 Scottish clubs in Europe. Unless a Scottish side wins the Europa League or unless the country secures one of the three "Fair Play" places, there will only be 4 clubs in Europe during 2011–12. As a result, both such sides plus 2nd in the First Division entered in the second round. Semi-Finals – Following discussions between the SPL and SFL, it was agreed that one or both semi-finals would take place on a weekend, and not on midweek as in previous years. This practice had been the source of criticism – as it forced fans to travel to a neutral venue for a prestigious Semi-Final on a weekday evening in January or February. The details will be confirmed after the quarter-finals.

Schedule

Fixtures and results

First round

The First round draw was conducted on 28 May 2010. Source:Scottish Cups
BBC Sport

Second round

The Second round draw was conducted on 6 August 2010. Source:

Third round

The Third round draw was conducted on 31 August 2010. Source:

Quarter-finals

The Quarter-finals draw was conducted on 23 September 2010. Ties were played on 26 and 27 October. ---- ---- ---- Source:

Semi-finals

The Semi-finals draw was conducted on 29 October 2010. ----

Final

Awards

A team, player and young player were chosen by the Scottish sports press as the top performers in each round.

References

External links

Official site

Results
Soccerway {{DEFAULTSORT:2010-11 Scottish League Cup Scottish League Cup seasons League Cup

Cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...