The 2013–14
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 ...
was the 68th season of Scotland's second-most prestigious
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
knockout competition.
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, with the first to third rounds seeded according to last season's league positions (higher 50% of finishers drawn v lower 50% of finishers, alternating which is at home with each tie drawn).
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 draws. The competition is open to all clubs in the
Scottish Professional Football League
The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the national men's association football league in Scotland. The league was formed in June 2013 following a merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. As well ...
. Clubs involved in European competitions are given a bye to the third round in order to avoid congestion of fixtures.
*First round: All 30 sides from the previous season's Scottish Football League enter including
Partick Thistle.
*Second round: The 15 winners of the first round are joined by last season's seven lowest placed teams in the SPL not in European competition, including relegated
Dundee
Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...
.
*Third round: The 11 winners of the second round are joined by the four SPL sides participating in European competition (
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 ...
,
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 ...
,
St Johnstone &
Hibernian) and the highest placed SPL finisher not in European competition (
Inverness Caledonian Thistle).
*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.
Schedule
*First round: Saturday 3 & Tuesday 6 August 2013
[Scottish League Cup First Round Draw](_blank)
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*Second round: Tuesday 27 & Wednesday 28 August 2013
Fixtures & Results
First round
The first round draw was conducted at Hampden Park on Friday 12 July 2013 at 2:30pm.
Second round
The second round draw was conducted at Hampden Park on Wednesday 7 August 2013 at 2:30pm.
Third round
The third round draw was conducted at Easter Road Stadium on Thursday 29 August 2013 at 11:30am.
Quarter-finals
The quarter-final draw was conducted at Hampden Park on Thursday 26 September 2013 at 3:00pm.
Semi-finals
The semi-final draw was conducted at Hampden Park on Thursday 31 October 2013 at 3:00pm.
Final
References
External links
Scottish Professional Football League – League Cup official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:2013-14 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 ...