After the championship, the association cup is a country‘s second most important competition. More than a hundred teams from different leagues in a country are eligible to join. The cup is in a ‘round mode’ with a total of 7 rounds in knockout format with a deciding game per fixture held. The winner of each game qualifies for the next round of competition, while the loser is eliminated. The winner of the final is also the winner of the trophy.

In a seasons cup competition a total of 128 teams take part, which means all teams from the first, second and both 3rd division leagues qualify. From the four leagues, only the best 14 teams from the fourth league will qualify, meaning the final table from preseason is decisive.

The draw for the pairings in all rounds is done without seedings, and drawn completely at random from the pot.

As some countries do not have enough clubs to participate completely in the cup, the starting round of the trophy cannot be fully filled, meaning randomly selected teams are given byes. These teams move automatically to the next round.

As standard, the host of a cup game has home advantage. This doesn‘t apply to the final game, where neither participating team has a home advantage.

The winners of the association cup will qualify to take part in an international competition during the following season. Normally these would be the Europeleague or the Americaleague. Should the winner of the association cup already be qualified for a higher quality competition like the Champions league or Copa Libertadores for instance, the losing finalist will gain the right to enter the competition. If the country, according to the 5 year country coefficient, has no starting place in the Europeleague or the Americaleague, the winner of the association cup will take part in qualification corresponding competition.

The revenue from ticket sales and the costs arising from the use of the stadium during the cup game, will be split 50/50 between both participating teams. The income from the stadium sponsoring is credited 100% to the host.

For reaching each round of the cup, teams are awarded with participation bonuses and a payout from the television exploitation rights (TV-Pool). The bonus amount and TV pool distributions can be taken from the relevant overview. If a team has a bye, it does not make any difference in the payout of bonuses and TV pool shares.

One game from every cup round is specially marketed and declared as the game of the round (TV Highlights). For the two participating teams of a game, this is a joint extra form of revenue. The amount of revenue depends on the attractiveness of the cup round and can be taken from the relevant overview. The game of the round is selected on the basis of respective fan base points of participating teams. If all teams have a bye, then the game of the round is not applicable.

[To Online Help Overview]