The 2024–25 National League Cup, is the 26th season in the history of the competition, and the first since its revival. It is a knock-out tournament between clubs in the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

, the fifth tier of the

English football league system The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with five teams from Wales, one from Guernsey, one from Jersey and one from the ...

, and 16 professional under-21 teams playing in

Premier League 2 The Professional Development League is a system of Football in England, English youth association football, football leagues that are managed, organised and controlled by the Premier League or by the Football League. It was introduced by the Th ...

. A prize fund of £1 million is distributed to non-league clubs in the fifth and sixth tiers, with the intention to provide younger players from the PL2 with senior experience. The relaunch of the competition has otherwise been controversial, with criticism and negativity from non-league clubs and their supporters.

Participating clubs

*16 invited clubs from the

. *16 invited

under-21 teams.

Competition format

; ;League phase * Four groups of eight teams. * All groups will include four National League sides and four academy sides. * All National League clubs will play each academy side once, and all academy sides will play each National League side once (academy sides will play all group matches away from home). * Clubs will be awarded three points for a win and one point for a draw. Drawn matches will end in a penalty shoot-out with an extra point for the winners. * The top two teams in each group will progress to the knockout stage. ;Knockout stage * In Round 2, the group winners will be seeded and the group runners-up will be unseeded in the draw. * In Round 2, teams who played in the same group as each other in the group stage will be kept apart.

Broadcasting

The National League announced all fixtures would be streamed live and free on NLTV.

Group stage

The group stage draw was made on 19 September 2024, when the competition was announced.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Quarter-finals

Teams who played in the same group in the group stage are kept apart. The draw was completed on 13 February 2025.

Qualified teams

Semi-finals

Leeds United U21 is the only remaining semi-finalist who plays in Premier League 2. The semi-finals are scheduled to be played on April 1st.

Qualified teams

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester, southwest of Sale, Greater Manchester, Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2021 United Kingdom ce ...

(Group B) Braintree Town (Group D) Leeds United U21 (Group C)

Sutton United Sutton United Football Club is a professional association football club from Sutton, South London, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. Sutton started out playing in junior, ...

(Group D)

Final

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2024-25 National League Cup Conference League Cup

National League Cup National League Cup is the name of: * National League Cup (football), football competition * National League Cup (rugby), rugby league competition {{disambig ...