The 2022–23

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 (until the semi-finals)/

Viaplay Viaplay is a Swedish video streaming service owned by Viaplay Group. History Originally owned by Modern Times Group, it was launched in May 2007 as Viasat On Demand. It was rebranded as Viaplay in 2011. Viaplay released its first origina ...

Cup (final) for sponsorship reasons, was the 77th 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.

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 ...

were the defending champions. They retained the title to win the competition for a 21st time.

Schedule

Format

The format for the 2022–23 competition was similar to the previous six seasons; however, this season the group stage was not regionalised. The competition began with eight groups of five teams. The five clubs initially 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 ...

(

and

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 ...

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 ...

( Heart of Midlothian) and Europa Conference League (

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

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 ...

) qualifying rounds received a bye to the second round. The group stage consisted of 40 teams: all remaining teams that competed across the

SPFL 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 ...

in 2021–22, and the

2021–22 Highland Football League The 2021–22 Highland Football League (known as the Breedon Highland League for sponsorship reasons) was the 119th season of the Highland Football League, and the 8th season as part of the fifth tier of the Scottish football pyramid system. Bror ...

champions (

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 ...

) and runners-up ( Buckie Thistle), and the

2021–22 Lowland Football League The 2021–22 Scottish Lowland Football League was the 9th season of the Lowland Football League, part of the fifth tier of the Scottish football pyramid system. Kelty Hearts were the reigning champions but were unable to defend their title aft ...

champions (

Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic Bonnyrigg Rose Football Club is a Scottish football club from the town of Bonnyrigg. Formed in 1881 and nicknamed ''the Rose'', the team plays in the , having been relegated in 2024–25. Their home ground is New Dundas Park, and they have ...

). The winners of each of the eight groups, as well as the three best runners-up, progressed to the second round (last 16). 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 European entrants were seeded.

Bonus point system

The traditional point system of awarding three points for a win and one point for a draw was used; however, for each group stage match that finished 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 ...

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

Group stage

The teams were seeded according to their final league positions in 2021–22 and drawn into eight groups, with each group comprising one team from each pot. The draw for the group stage took place on 25 May 2022 and was broadcast live on

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& th
SPFL YouTube channel

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Best runners-up

Knockout phase

Second round

Draw and seeding

, Heart of Midlothian,

and

entered the competition at this 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 draw took place on 24 July 2022, following the

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 ...

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. 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 ...

. ** denotes team playing in League One. *** denotes team playing in League Two.

Matches

Quarter-finals

The draw took place on 31 August 2022, following the Ross County v

match.

Matches

Semi-finals

The draw took place on 19 October 2022, following the

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 ...

match. VAR was used for the first time in the tournament when it was introduced at the semi-final stage.

Matches

Final

Media coverage

The domestic broadcasting rights for the competition are held exclusively by

, who will broadcast between 12 and 16 live matches per season, as well as highlights. The following matches were broadcast live on UK television:

Top goalscorers

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2022-23 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 ...