The Danish Cup (; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, ...

" cup competition in Danish football, run by the

Danish Football Association The Danish Football Association (; DBU) is the governing body of football in Denmark. It is the organization of Danish football clubs and runs the professional Danish football leagues, alongside the men's and women's national teams. Based ...

. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will qualify for the

UEFA 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 ...

tournament the following year, where they (as of the 2009–10 season) will enter in the third qualifying round. The final traditionally takes place on ''Kristi Himmelfarts Dag'' ( The Ascension) and it is always played in the Danish national stadium Parken. However in the 1991 and 1992 seasons the final had been rescheduled to Odense Stadion and Århus Stadion respectively due to the renovation of Parken. Furthermore, in 2011, because Ascension Thursday fell on 2 June and an international match date was already allotted for this date, the Danish Cup final was played two weeks earlier on 22 May, which coincided with the annual Copenhagen Marathon. Attention has been brought to the fact that the final on most occasions unpractically is played before the last rounds of the league, which can open up for speculation in the benefit of losing league games at the end of the season especially for the cup runner-up if the winner is heading for the league championship. Recently former AaB player David Nielsen claimed in his autobiography that after losing the cup final in 2004 to FC Copenhagen, he deliberately missed opportunities to score against them when AaB and FC Copenhagen met in the final league match because FCK would win the championship (and thereby the double) and land AaB in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

as losing cup finalists.

Format

Each club may only have one team in the tournament (their first team). If a match (except one of the two-legged semifinals, except if the 2nd match's result gives an aggregate tie, including the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

) ends in a tie, two fifteen-minute

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

periods will be played, with penalty kicks if the tie remains after the extra time.

The participants

The teams are not seeded, but the lowest placed team from the previous season will always get the home pitch advantage.

Until 2005–06

*1st round, 64 teams **48 teams qualified through preliminary cups held by the regional associations. **16 teams from the 2nd division (all teams) *2nd round, 32+8 teams **32 teams from the 1st round (winners) **8 teams from the 1st division (9th–16th placed) *3rd round, 20+8 teams **20 teams from the 2nd round **6 teams from the 1st division (3rd–8th placed) **2 teams from the Superliga (11th–12th, the relegated teams which are now in the 1st division) *4th round, 14+6 teams **14 teams from the 3rd round **4 teams from the Superliga (7th–10th) **2 teams from the 1st division (1st–2nd, the promoted teams which are now in the Superliga) *5th round, 10+6 teams **10 teams from the 4th round **6 teams from the Superliga (1st–6th) *Quarterfinals, 8 teams **8 teams from the 5th round – and so on until the finals.

From 2006–07

*1st round, 88 teams **48 teams qualified through preliminary cups held by the regional associations. **28 teams from the 2nd divisions (all teams) **12 teams from the 1st division (5th–16th placed) *2nd round, 44+12 teams **44 teams from the 1st round (winners) **4 teams from the 1st division (1st–4th placed) **8 teams from the Superliga (5th–12th placed). *3rd round, 28+4 teams **28 teams from the 2nd round **4 teams from the Superliga (1st–4th placed) *4th round, 16 teams **16 teams from the 3rd round *Quarterfinals, 8 teams **8 teams from the 4th round – and so on until the finals.

From 2021–22

*1st round, 92 teams **56 teams qualified through preliminary cups held by the regional associations. **12 teams from the 3rd divisions **12 teams from the 2nd divisions **12 teams from the 1st division *2nd round, 46+6 teams **46 teams from the 1st round (winners) **6 teams from the Superliga (5th–12th placed). *3rd round, 26+6 teams **26 teams from the 2nd round **6 teams from the Superliga (1st–6th placed) *4th round, 16 teams **16 teams from the 3rd round *Quarterfinals, 8 teams **8 teams from the 4th round – and so on until the finals.

Finals

Results by team

Footnotes

References

External links

Page on the website of the DBU

Cup at UEFA
RSSSF.com
Danish Cup summary
SOCCERWAY) {{National football Cups (UEFA region) 1 1

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...