FAI Women's Cup
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The Football Association of Ireland Women's Cup is the senior
cup competition A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...
for women's association football in Ireland. It is commonly known as the Women's FAI Cup, the WFAI Cup, or prior to 2001, the Ladies FAI Cup or the LFAI Cup. Organised by the
Women's Football Association of Ireland Football Association of Ireland, Women's (FAI Women's) (formerly the Women's Football Association of Ireland) is the governing body for women's association football in Ireland. It is responsible for organising the Republic of Ireland women's nat ...
, like the Women's National League, the Cup is currently sponsored by
Sports Direct Sportsdirect.com Retail Limited, trading as Sports Direct, is a British retail company owned by Frasers Group. The company was founded in 1982 by Mike Ashley (businessman), Mike Ashley and was originally based in Maidenhead, England. It specialises ...
and is known as the Sports Direct Women's FAI Cup. Previous sponsors include EVOKE.ie,
Continental Tyres Continental AG, commonly known as Continental and colloquially as Conti, is a German multinational Automotive industry, automotive parts manufacturing company. Headquartered in Hanover, Lower Saxony, it is the world's third-List of the largest ...
,
Umbro Umbro is an English sports equipment manufacturer founded in 1924 in Wilmslow, Cheshire, and based in Manchester. They specialise in football and rugby sportswear featuring their ''Double Diamond'' logo. Umbro products are sold in over 100 c ...
and Brother International.


History


Antecedents

Two reports in the ''
Kilkenny People The ''Kilkenny People'' is a local newspaper circulated in County Kilkenny, Ireland. Popular in Kilkenny City and County, the newspaper competes with ''The Munster Express'' in the south of the county. ''The Kilkenny People'' is published on ...
'' suggest that Evergreen (Kilkenny) defeated Avengers (Dublin) in a 1973 final. Two 1974 articles in the ''
Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray backgrou ...
'' and '' Sunday Independent'' report that Anne O'Brien won the Drumcondra Cup with All-Stars (Dublin) in 1972. A 1985 article in the '' Munster Express'', marking Benfica's twenty year anniversary, claims the club first played in a national Cup as early as in 1968.


Early years

Although the
RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...
archives only list finals from 1989, a match programme from a 1978 international between the
Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...
and
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
confirmed that the Ladies FAI Cup was first played for in 1975 with
Limerick Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. W ...
defeating C.S.O. (Dublin) 2–1 in the final. Records from the early 1980s are more clear and during this period the three strongest teams were Dublin Castle, Benfica and Rathfarnham United. The former two clubs were both members of the Ladies League of Ireland. Dublin Castle was founded in the mid-1970s as a
works team A works team, sometimes also referred to as factory team and company team, is a sports team that is financed and run by a manufacturer or other business, institution, or organization in a broad sense. Works teams have very close ties with thei ...
by Margaret Griffin, a former
camogie Camogie ( ; ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities. A variant of the game "hurling" (which is played by men only), it is organised ...
player from Ennis, County Clare who later became a Republic of Ireland international. At the time Griffin was working for the Irish Revenue Commissioners based at
Dublin Castle Dublin Castle () is a major Government of Ireland, Irish government complex, conference centre, and tourist attraction. It is located off Dame Street in central Dublin. It is a former motte-and-bailey castle and was chosen for its position at ...
. Benfica won the cup for the third time in 1993 in controversial circumstances.
College Corinthians College Corinthians A.F.C. is an List of association football clubs in the Republic of Ireland, Irish association football club based in Douglas, Cork. Their senior men's team play in the Munster Senior League Senior Premier Division. They also ...
originally defeated Benfica 1–0 in the final. However a replay was held after it was discovered that Corinthians had fielded two unregistered players. In the replay, a fifteen year old Ciara Grant scored twice as Benfica won 3–0 at
Kilcohan Park Kilcohan Park Greyhound Stadium is a greyhound racing track and former soccer stadium located in the south of Waterford, Ireland. Operations Racing takes place every Friday and Saturday evening. Race distances are 325, 525, 550, 575 and 731 ya ...
.


DWSL monopoly

Following the emergence of the Dublin Women's Soccer League in 1993, its member clubs, most notably
Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club is an Irish professional Association football, football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is List of football clubs by competit ...
and UCD, dominated the competition. This monopoly was briefly broken in 2006 and 2007 by the representative teams of two regional women's leagues. A team representing the Mayo Ladies League defeated UCD in the 2006 final and in 2007 the Galway Ladies League defeated Raheny United. Between 2008 and 2011 the DWSL dominance was restored with victories by St Francis, Peamount United and St. Catherine's.


UEFA Women's Cup

Between 2001 and 2010 the FAI Women's Cup served as a qualifier for the
UEFA Women's Cup The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. T ...
. In 2002–03, after winning the 2001 cup,
Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club is an Irish professional Association football, football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is List of football clubs by competit ...
became the first women's team to represent the Republic of Ireland in
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
. UCD became the second Republic of Ireland team to qualify for Europe after winning the cup. UCD played in the 2003–04, 2004–05 and
2005–06 UEFA Women's Cup The UEFA Women's Cup 2005–06 was the fifth edition of the UEFA Women's Cup football club tournament. It was won by Frankfurt in an all-German final against defending champions Turbine Potsdam for their second title in the competition. Teams ...
s. The Mayo Ladies League, the Galway Ladies League, St Francis and Peamount United all represented the Republic of Ireland in Europe after winning the cup. In 2005 Dundalk City won the FAI Women's Cup and as a result qualified for the
2006–07 UEFA Women's Cup The UEFA Women's Cup 2006–07 was the sixth edition of the UEFA Women's Cup football (soccer), football club tournament (since rebranded as the UEFA Women's Champions League). 43 teams from 42 football associations took part, starting with the fi ...
. However, in 2006 a split developed within Dundalk City over a plan for the club to fully merge with
Dundalk F.C. Dundalk Football Club ( ) is a professional football club that competes in the League of Ireland First Division. It was founded in 1903 as Dundalk G.N.R., the works-team of the Great Northern Railway. It is based in Dundalk, County Louth and ...
This saw the emergence of two separate women's teams. Dundalk City was re-established as an independent club while Dundalk W.F.C. became affiliated with the
League of Ireland The League of Ireland is a national association football Sports league, league consisting of professional clubs in the Republic of Ireland and Derry, Derry City in Northern Ireland. It is governed by the Football Association of Ireland. It was ...
club. Following complications that resulted from the split, it was Dundalk W.F.C. that went on to represent the Republic of Ireland in the UEFA Women's Cup.


Women's National League era

The establishment of the Women's National League in 2011–12 led to a revamp for the FAI Women's Cup. Played between August and November, it serves as a warm up competition for the WNL season. Between 2013 and 2019 the final was staged as part of double header at the
Aviva Stadium Aviva Stadium, also known as Lansdowne Road (, ) or Dublin Arena (during UEFA competitions), is a List of stadiums in Ireland by capacity, sports stadium located in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with a capacity for 51,711 spectators ...
along with the men's
FAI Cup The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Sports Direct FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as D ...
final. This idea had previously been tried out in 2004 and 2005 when
Lansdowne Road Lansdowne Road Stadium (, ) was a stadium in Dublin owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) that was primarily used for rugby union and association football matches. The stadium was demolished in 2007 to make way for the Aviva Stadium on ...
hosted both finals on the same day. Since 2013 the final has also been broadcast live on
RTÉ Two (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Republic of Ireland, Irish Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, television, RTà ...
. In 2015 the double header system caused controversy when the FAI Women's Cup final went to extra-time and penalties. During the penalty shoot-out,
Cork City F.C. Cork City Football Club is an Irish association football club based in Cork. The club was founded and elected to the League of Ireland in 1984. It was one of the first clubs in Ireland (and the first in Cork) to field a team of professiona ...
players began their warm up preparations for the men's FAI Cup on the pitch. From the 2020 season onwards, the final was staged at Tallaght Stadium on a separate day to the men's final.


List of finals

;Notes


List of winners by club

Dublin Castle and Castle Rovers/Shamrock Rovers have won the cup the most times, each winning the competition six times. ;Notes


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fai Womens Cup Women's Women's Women's association football competitions in the Republic of Ireland
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FAI Women's Cup