The 2021–22

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 ...

(also known as the

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 ...

Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 76th 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. The format for the 2021–22 competition was similar to the previous five seasons. It began with eight groups of five teams including all

2020–21 Scottish Professional Football League Statistics of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) in season 2020–21. Scottish Premiership Scottish Championship Scottish League One Scottish League Two Award winners Yearly Monthly See also *2020–21 in ...

(SPFL) clubs, excluding those competing in Champions League,

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

and

Europa Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual association football, football competition organised since 2021 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European foot ...

qualifiers, as well as the winners of the

2020–21 Highland Football League The 2020–21 Highland Football League (known as the Breedon Highland League for sponsorship reasons) was the 118th season of the Highland Football League, and the 7th season as the fifth tier of the Scottish football pyramid system. Due to the C ...

(

Brora Rangers Brora Rangers Football Club are a Scottish football club from the village of Brora, Sutherland, in the Highland council area of Scotland. They play in the , of which they have been champions five times, having won their first title in 2013–1 ...

) and the

2020–21 Lowland Football League The 2020–21 Scottish Lowland Football League was the 8th season of the Lowland Football League, the fifth tier of the Scottish football pyramid system. Kelty Hearts were the reigning champions. The league consisted of 17 teams as no clubs we ...

( Kelty Hearts). A difference from recent seasons was that five clubs were given a bye to the last 16 instead of four, due to increased representation in European competition. This meant that another non-league club (

East Kilbride East Kilbride (; ), sometimes referred to as EK, is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland, and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. Historically a small village, it was designated Scotland's first "new town" on 6 Ma ...

) were invited to round out the group stage. The domestic broadcasting rights for the competition are held exclusively by

, who became the tournament's title sponsor in April 2021.

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland. The team competes in the , the second division of Scottish football. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun (or Saint Johnstoun)—an old name o ...

were the defending champions after beating Livingston 1–0 in the last season's final. They were eliminated in the semi-finals by eventual winners

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 their 20th title after beating Hibernian 2–1 in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

Schedule

Format

The competition began with eight groups of five teams. The five clubs competing in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

(

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 ...

and

(

) and Conference League ( Hibernian and

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 ...

) qualifying rounds were given a bye through to the second round. The 40 teams competing in the group stage consisted of the other seven teams that competed in the

2020–21 Scottish Premiership The 2020–21 Scottish Premiership was the eighth season of the Scottish Premiership, the 124th edition of the highest division of Scottish football. The fixtures were published on 6 July 2020, with the season beginning on 1 August, following ...

, and all of the teams that competed in the 2020–21 Scottish Championship,

2020–21 Scottish League One The 2020–21 Scottish League One was the eighth season of Scottish League One, the third tier of Scottish football. The season commenced later than usual, on the October 17th, being played over a shortened 22 game period due to the ongoing coron ...

and

2020–21 Scottish League Two The 2020–21 Scottish League Two was the 27th season in the current format of 10 teams in the fourth-tier of Scottish football. The season commenced later than usual on 17 October, being played over a shortened 27-game period due to the Coronavi ...

. The

and the

champions also competed. Due to a fifth Scottish team participating in European competition and receiving a bye to the second round, an extra spot was available in the group stage. This was taken by Lowland League side

, after lots were drawn between the Lowland League and Highland League runners-up for the final place in the groups. The winners of each of the eight groups, as well as the three best runners-up progressed to the second round (last 16), which included the five UEFA qualifying clubs. At this stage, the competition reverted to the traditional

knock-out A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several Contact sports, full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of World Taekwondo Federation#Sparri ...

format. The three group winners with the highest points total and the clubs entering at this stage were seeded, with the five group winners with the lowest points unseeded along with the three best runners-up.

Bonus point system

In December 2015, the SPFL announced that alongside the new group stage format, a bonus point system would be introduced to provide greater excitement and increase the number of meaningful games at this stage. The traditional point system of awarding three points for a win and one point for a draw is used, however, for each group stage match that finishes in a draw, a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

takes place, with the winner being awarded a bonus point.

Group stage

The group stage was made up of seven teams from the

, and all ten teams from each of the 2020–21 Scottish Championship,

and

, as well as the winners and runners-up of the

and the winners of the

. The 40 teams were divided into two sections – North and South – with each section containing four top seeds, four second seeds and 12 unseeded teams. Each section was drawn into four groups with each group comprising one top seed, one second seed and three unseeded teams. The draw for the group stage took place on 28 May 2021 and was broadcast live on

FreeSports Viaplay Xtra was a British sports television channel operated and owned by Viaplay Group. History Viaplay Xtra launched as FreeSports on 31 August 2017 and was closed down on 25 January 2024 with the aim to provide free-to-air sports covera ...

& th
SPFL YouTube channel

North

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

South

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Best runners-up

Knockout phase

Second round

Draw and seeding

, Hibernian,

and

entered the competition at this stage, after receiving a bye for the group stage due to their participation in

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

club competitions. The five UEFA-qualifying clubs and the three group winners with the best record were seeded for the draw. The draw for the second round took place on 25 July 2021. Teams in Bold advanced to the quarter-finals. ;Notes *† denotes teams playing in 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 ...

Matches

Quarter-finals

Draw

Teams in Bold advanced to the semi-finals.

Matches

Semi-finals

Draw

The draw for the semi-finals took place on 23 September 2021 live on

following the

Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League. The club has won f ...

match.

Matches

Final

Media coverage

The domestic broadcasting rights for the competition are held exclusively by Premier Sports who will broadcast between 12 and 16 Premier Sports Cup live matches per season as well as highlights. The following matches were broadcast live on UK television: ;Notes

Top goalscorers

Source:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2021-22 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 ...