The 2020–21

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,William Hill's nine-year partnership with the Scottish FA came to an end following the 2019–20 tournament. This was the second season in which a match from every round of the tournament proper was broadcast live via TV partners

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 ...

and BBC Scotland, with one match in the first and second rounds being shown live on the

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, employing approximately 1,250 staff as of 2017, to produce 15,000 hours of television and radio programming per year. BBC Scotla ...

channel for the second time. The defending champions were

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 ...

, who won the 2020 Scottish Cup Final on 20 December 2020. Celtic lost to their

Old Firm The Old Firm is a collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply embedded i ...

rivals

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 ...

in the fourth round, which was their first defeat in the competition since 2015–16. St Johnstone were the winners of the Scottish Cup, beating Hibernian 1–0 in the final on 22 May to complete a historic cup Double, becoming only the 2nd ever team outside of the

to do so since Aberdeen in the 1989–90 season.

Calendar

The calendar for the 2020–21 Scottish Cup, as announced by

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (; also known as the Scottish FA and the SFA) is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. Members of the SFA incl ...

on 27 October 2020. On 11 January 2021, the competition was suspended by the Scottish FA due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland The COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland is part of the COVID-19 pandemic of COVID-19, coronavirus disease-2019, caused by the virus Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, SARS-CoV-2. The first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Scotland on 1 M ...

. On 3 March 2021, new dates for the competition were announced. The format featured several changes from the previous season because of the increased number of eligible clubs and the tournament's compressed schedule. Due to the potential for fixture congestion during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, replays were not played during the 2020–21 competition.

Preliminary rounds

Preliminary round one

The first preliminary round took place on the weekend of 28 November 2020. There were 26 entries at this stage - 20 from the

East of Scotland Football League The East of Scotland Football League (EoSFL) is a senior association football, football league based in the east and south-east of Scotland. The league sits at levels 6–9 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Lowlan ...

, 4 from the

South of Scotland Football League The South of Scotland Football League (SoSFL) is a senior football league based in south-west Scotland. The league sits at level 6 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Lowland Football League. Founded in 1946, it ...

, 1 from the

West of Scotland Football League The West of Scotland Football League (WoSFL) is a senior football league based in the west of Scotland. The league sits at levels 6–10 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Lowland Football League. Founded in 20 ...

and 1 from the SJFA North Region. 22 clubs with a valid club licence received a bye to the next round. Dunipace, Haddington Athletic, Newtongrange Star, and Tranent Juniors took part in the Scottish Cup for the first time having each gained their Club Licence, along with Musselburgh Athletic who made their debut as 2019–20 South & East Cup-Winners Shield winners. Auchinleck Talbot, Burntisland Shipyard,

Girvan Girvan (, "mouth of the River Girvan") is a burgh and harbour town in Carrick, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Girvan is situated on the east coast of the Firth of Clyde, with a population of about 6,450. It lies south of Ayr, and north of St ...

, and Golspie Sutherland withdrew from the competition after the initial format was announced. Clubs marked ‡ were ineligible for a bye to the second preliminary round.

Draw

Banks O' Dee, Blackburn United, Broxburn Athletic, Camelon Juniors, Coldstream, Dundonald Bluebell, Dunipace, Easthouses Lily Miners Welfare, Glasgow University, Haddington Athletic, Hawick Royal Albert United, Hill of Beath Hawthorn, Jeanfield Swifts, Linlithgow Rose, Newton Stewart, Newtongrange Star, Preston Athletic, Threave Rovers, Tranent Juniors, Tynecastle, Whitehill Welfare and Wigtown & Bladnoch received a bye to the second preliminary round.

Matches

Preliminary round two

The second preliminary round took place on the weekend of 12 December 2020. Along with the two winners from the first preliminary round and 22 teams with byes, there were 28 new entries at this stage - 14 from the

Highland Football League The Scottish Highland Football League (SHFL, commonly known as the Highland League) is a senior football league based in the north of Scotland. The league sits at level 5 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Scott ...

and 14 from the

Lowland Football League The Scottish Lowland Football League (SLFL, commonly known as the Lowland League) and the Park’s Motor Group Scottish Lowland League for sponsorship reasons is a senior football league based in central and southern Scotland. The league sits a ...

. Forres Mechanics and Gretna 2008 withdrew from the competition after the initial format was announced.

Draw

Teams in ''Italics'' were unknown at the time of the draw. Teams in Bold advanced to the first round.

Matches

First round

The first round took place on the weekend of 26 December 2020. Along with the 26 winners from the second preliminary round, there were 14 new entries at this stage - two from the

( Brora Rangers and

Fraserburgh Fraserburgh (; ), locally known as the Broch, is a town in Aberdeenshire (unitary), Aberdeenshire, Scotland, with a population recorded in the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census as 13,100. It lies in Buchan in the northeastern corner of th ...

), two from the

( Kelty Hearts and Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic) and all 10 teams from League Two.

Draw

The draw for the first round took place on Sunday 13 December 2020 at 10am live on the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,League One and the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

Draw

The draw for the second round took place on Monday 28 December 2020 at 7:15pm live on the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Scottish FA The Scottish Football Association (; also known as the Scottish FA and the SFA) is the governing body of football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to s ...

announced that competitions below the Championship would be suspended as a result of the

. As a result, the remaining second round ties were postponed. The remaining matches took place on 23 March 2021.

Third round

The third round was originally scheduled to take place on the weekend of 30 January 2021 but instead took place in April 2021 as a result of the

. Along with the 20 winners from the second round, there were 12 new entries at this stage - all from the Premiership.

Draw

The draw for the third round took place on Sunday 10 January 2021 at 11am live on the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup, Teams in ''Italics'' were unknown at the time of the draw. Teams in Bold advanced to the quarter-finals.

Matches

Following the death of

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 19219 April 2021), was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he was the consort of the British monarch from h ...

, the fourth round matches were rearranged to avoid clashing with his funeral on 17 April 2021.

Quarter-finals

The quarter-finals took place on the weekend of 24 April 2021.

Draw

The draw for the quarter-finals took place on Sunday 4 April 2021 at 2pm live on the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,

Matches

Semi-finals

The semi-finals took place 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 ...

on the weekend of 8 May 2021.

Draw

The draw for the semi-finals took place on Monday 26 April 2021 live on

following the Kilmarnock v St Mirren tie. Teams in Bold advanced to the final.

Matches

Final

The final was played on 22 May 2021 at

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 ...

. Originally it was scheduled for 8 May 2021 but was pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Broadcasting

The Scottish Cup was broadcast by Premier Sports and BBC Scotland.

had the first 2 picks of Round 3 and Round 4, the quarter-finals as well as first pick of one semi-final and aired the final non-exclusively.

broadcast one match per round from the first round and two matches per round from the second round to the quarter-finals, as well as one semi-final and the final. The following matches were broadcast live on UK television:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2020-21 Scottish Cup Scottish Cup seasons

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 ...