The 2016–17

Scottish Challenge Cup The Scottish Professional Football League Challenge Cup,IRN-BRU Irn-Bru ( "iron brew", ) is a Scottish carbonated soft drink, often described as "Scotland's other national drink" after Scotch whisky. Introduced in 1901, the drink is produced in Westfield, Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, by A.G. Barr of ...

Cup due to sponsorship reasons, was the 26th season of the competition. The tournament took on a different format from previous seasons with a total of 54 teams participating. It was the first season with two clubs from both Northern Ireland and Wales competing alongside the 30 members of the

2016–17 Scottish Championship The 2016–17 Scottish Championship (known as the Ladbrokes Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the 23rd season in the current format of 10 teams in the second tier of Scottish football. The fixtures were published on 17 June 2016. Hibernia ...

2016–17 Scottish League One The 2016–17 Scottish League One (known as Ladbrokes League One for sponsorship reasons) was the 23rd season in the current format of 10 teams in the third-tier of Scottish football. The fixtures were published on 17 June 2016. Ten teams contest ...

and

2016–17 Scottish League Two The 2016–17 Scottish League Two (known as Ladbrokes League Two for sponsorship reasons) was the 23rd season in the current format of 10 teams in the fourth-tier of Scottish football. The last placed team (Cowdenbeath) entered a play-off with a ...

, four teams from the

2016–17 Highland Football League The 2016–17 Highland Football League started in July 2016 and ended on 22 April 2017. For promotion to Scottish League Two, the league champions playoff with the Lowland Football League champions (or other eligible team from outside the SPFL ...

and four from the

2016–17 Lowland Football League The 2016–17 Scottish Lowland Football League (known as the Ferrari Packaging Lowland League for sponsorship reasons) was the fourth season of the Lowland Football League, the fifth tier of the Scottish football pyramid system. Edinburgh City w ...

as well as the Under-20 teams of the teams competing in the

2016–17 Scottish Premiership The 2016–17 Scottish Premiership (known as the Ladbrokes Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the fourth season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football. The fixtures were published on 17 June 2016. The sea ...

. The defending champions,

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

, who defeated

Peterhead Peterhead (; , ) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is the council area's largest settlement, with a population of 19,060 at the 2022 Census for Scotland, 2022 Census. It is the largest fishing port in the United Kingdom for total landi ...

in the 2016 final, did not compete in the competition due to their promotion to the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, also known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Scotland and the highest level of the Scottish football league system. Th ...

. Irn Bru replaced

Petrofac Petrofac Limited is a British international energy services company that designs, builds, manages and maintains oil, gas, refining, petrochemicals and renewable energy infrastructure, and trains the people who support them. It operates in a range ...

as the main sponsor of the competition in June 2016.

Format

First round

The draw for the first round was made on 23 June at

Hampden Park Hampden Park ( ; Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden'') is a association football, football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland, which is the national stadium of football in Scotland and home of the Scotland national football ...

. The 28 teams entering at this stage were separated into 4 regional pools. This was to ensure that U20s teams were not drawn against each other and that teams from the

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally, ''upland'' refers to a range of hills, typically from up to , while ''highland'' is usually reserved for range ...

and Lowland Leagues were not drawn against each other.

North Section

Draw and seeding

Teams from Pool A will be drawn against teams from Pool B. Teams in Bold qualified for the Second round.

Matches

South Section

Draw and seeding

Teams from Pool C will be drawn against teams from Pool D. Teams in Bold qualified for the Second round.

Matches

Second round

The draw for the second round was made at 12:30pm on Thursday, 4 August at

and streamed live on

Periscope A periscope is an instrument for observation over, around or through an object, obstacle or condition that prevents direct line-of-sight observation from an observer's current position. In its simplest form, it consists of an outer case with ...

by Irn-Bru's football

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

account. The 14 teams advancing from the first round were joined by the top two teams from the

2015–16 Scottish League Two The 2015–16 Scottish League Two (referred to as the Ladbrokes League Two for sponsorship reasons) was the 22nd season in the current format of 10 teams in the fourth-tier of Scottish football. The last placed team entered a play-off with a team ...

and the eight teams placed third to 10th from the

2015–16 Scottish League One The 2015–16 Scottish League One (referred to as the Ladbrokes League One for sponsorship reasons) was the 22nd season in the current format of 10 teams in the third-tier of Scottish football. Teams Promoted from Scottish League Two * Albion Ro ...

. The second round ties will take place on Tuesday 16 or Wednesday 17 August 2016.

North Section

Draw and seeding

Teams from Pot A will be drawn against teams from Pot B. Teams in Bold advanced to the third round.

Matches

South Section

Draw and seeding

Teams from Pot C will be drawn against teams from Pot D. Teams in ''Italics'' were not known at the time of the draw. Teams in Bold advanced to the third round.

Matches

Third round

The draw for the third round was made on Thursday 18 August at 1pm at

The Kelpies ''The Kelpies'' are a pair of monumental steel horse-heads between the Scottish towns of Falkirk and Grangemouth. They stand next to the M9 motorway (Scotland), M9 motorway and form the eastern gateway of the Forth and Clyde Canal, which meets ...

and was streamed live on

by Irn-Bru's football

account. The 12 teams advancing from the second round will be joined by the ten teams from the

and the bottom two teams from the

2015–16 Scottish Championship The 2015–16 Scottish Championship (referred to as the Ladbrokes Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the 22nd season in the current format of 10 teams in the second tier of Scottish football. Rangers won the league title and promotion afte ...

. The third round ties took place on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 September 2016.

North Section

Draw and seeding

Teams from Pot A will be drawn against teams from Pot B. Teams in Bold advanced to the fourth round.

Matches

South Section

Draw and seeding

Teams from Pot C will be drawn against teams from Pot D. Teams in Bold advanced to the fourth round.

Matches

Fourth round

The 12 teams advancing from the third round were to be joined by the four teams that finished first and second in the

2015–16 NIFL Premiership The 2015–16 NIFL Premiership (known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the 8th season of the NIFL Premiership, the highest level of league football in Northern Ireland, the 115th season of Irish league football overall, ...

and the 2015–16 Welsh Premier League.

Draw and seeding

The draw for the fourth round was made at the

Oriam Oriam is Scotland's national performance centre for sport, based at Heriot-Watt University's Riccarton campus in Edinburgh. The Scottish Rugby Union and the Scottish Football Association use it as a training facility, Heart of Midlothian F.C. ...

National Performance Centre,

Heriot Watt University Heriot-Watt University () is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and was subsequently granted university status by royal ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

on Tuesday, 6 September at 12pm. The draw was made by

John Hartson John Hartson (born 5 April 1975) is a Welsh former professional footballer, coach and sports television pundit for S4C, Sky Sports, Premier Sports TV and TNT Sports. As a player he was a striker, notably for Scottish club Celtic where his ti ...

and IRN-BRU super fan Michael Douglas. There was no seeding for the draw however, teams for Northern Ireland and Wales could not be drawn against each other. As a result, they were placed into two separate pots (A and B) before being drawn against the remaining Scottish teams (Pot C). The Welsh teams were drawn first followed by the Northern Irish teams with one of each playing at home and one away. Teams in Bold advanced to the quarter-finals.

Matches

Replay

;Notes

Quarter-finals

Draw

The draw for the quarter-finals was made at the Titan Crane on the

River Clyde The River Clyde (, ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde, in the west of Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the second longest in Scotland after the River Tay. It runs through the city of Glasgow. Th ...

Clydebank Clydebank () is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Milton beyond) to the w ...

on Monday, 10 October at 2pm and was streamed live on

by Irn-Bru's football

account. The draw was made by former

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 ...

and

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

striker

Kevin Gallacher Kevin William Gallacher (born 23 November 1966) is a Scottish football pundit and commentator, and former professional player. He played as a forward from 1983 until 2002, notably in the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers where he was part o ...

and

Rio 2016 The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

silver medallist Dan Wallace. There was no seeding for the draw however, as with the previous round, teams from Northern Ireland and Wales, should they qualify, would not be drawn against each other. The ties took place on the weekend of 12 and 13 November. Teams in Bold advanced to the semi-finals.

Matches

Semi-finals

Draw

The draw for the semi-finals was made at the Toryglen Regional Football Centre in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

on Monday, 14 November and streamed live on

by Irn-Bru's football

account. The draw was made by former

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

and

striker

Paul Dickov Paul Dickov (born 1 November 1972) is a Scottish former professional football manager and player who works as a television pundit for Manchester City TV. Dickov played as a forward from 1990 to 2011, starting his career with Arsenal. He won ...

and current

and Hibernian striker Abi Harrison. There was no seeding for the draw and the ties are due to take place on the weekend of 18 and 19 February 2017. Teams in Bold advanced to the final.

Matches

Final

Statistics

Top goalscorers

Player of the Round

The Golden Ball Award is a 'Player of the Round' award given to the player who is adjudged to have had the best performance of that round out of all the players in teams left competing in that round of the competition. The winner is voted for by supporters from a chosen short-list of players on th
official Irn-Bru Football twitter page

Broadcasting rights

The domestic broadcasting rights for the competition are held jointly by

BBC Alba BBC Alba is a Scottish Gaelic-language free-to-air public broadcast television channel jointly owned by the BBC and MG Alba. The channel was launched on 19 September 2008 and is on-air for up to seven hours a day. The name ' is the Scottish Gae ...

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speakin ...

(for matches involving Welsh teams) and subscription channel

Premier Sports Premier Sports is a group of pay sports television channels owned by SSBL Limited that are available in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Premier Sports holds exclusive live rights to La Liga, Scottish League Cup, Elite Ice Hockey League, NHL a ...

. Prior to the re-format in the 2016–17 season,

had exclusive rights. The following matches are to be broadcast live on UK television:

References

External links

Scottish Challenge Cup at the Scottish Professional Football League
{{DEFAULTSORT:2016-17 Scottish Challenge Cup Scottish Challenge Cup seasons

Challenge Cup The Rugby Football League Challenge Cup, commonly known just as the Challenge Cup is a Single-elimination tournament, knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, it is the world's old ...

2016–17 in Northern Ireland association football 2016–17 in Welsh football