The Scottish League Cup

The Scottish League Cup is open to all 42 clubs of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) — the four-tier professional pyramid covering the Scottish Premiership, Championship, League One, and League Two. The modern format also invites selected clubs from the Highland League and Lowland League, the fifth-tier leagues that feed into the SPFL. In the current format, 40 clubs begin in the group stage and the Scottish clubs involved in European competition join in the knockout rounds. The competition is currently officially known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons.

The competition was launched in 1946-47, making it the oldest national League Cup competition in football. The format was inherited from the wartime Southern League Cup, a regional competition that operated while regular national league football was suspended during the Second World War. Rangers won the inaugural 1946-47 final at Hampden Park. The competition has had several major format changes across its history but has been held continuously every year since. The Scottish Cup, by contrast, is the older and more prestigious of Scotland's two cup competitions.

The competition begins with a group stage, usually held in July, featuring 40 SPFL and invited clubs split into eight groups of five. The Scottish clubs participating in European competitions are exempt from the group stage and join the competition later. Each club plays each of the other four clubs in its group once across four matches in a single round-robin. Group matches that are level after 90 minutes go straight to penalties, with the shoot-out winner earning a bonus point. The eight group winners and the three best runners-up advance to the round of 16, where they are joined by the European-exempt clubs.

From the round of 16 onwards, the competition is a straight knockout. Every tie is a single match — there are no two-legged ties or replays. Ties that are level after 90 minutes go to 30 minutes of extra time, then a penalty shoot-out if needed. The semi-finals are traditionally held at Hampden Park. The final is also held at Hampden Park in December, providing the first major trophy of the Scottish football season. The group-stage format has been in place since the 2016-17 season.

The group stage is usually held in July, with matches played mid-week and on weekends in the build-up to the start of the Scottish Premiership season. In the current schedule pattern, the round of 16 follows in August, the quarter-finals in September, the semi-finals in November, and the final in December. The compressed timeline gives the competition a distinctive early-season identity — the first major trophy contested in any Scottish football season.

The League Cup final at Hampden Park is one of the major events in the Scottish football calendar, especially when it features the Old Firm or another large travelling support. The 14 December 2025 final saw St Mirren beat Celtic 3-1 at Hampden Park to win the cup for the second time in their history — their first League Cup success since 2012-13. The December final timing means the winner often celebrates the trophy through the festive period.

The Scottish League Cup winner is awarded the trophy and prize money but no longer qualifies for European football. The cup winner was historically awarded a UEFA Cup place from 1981 to 1995, although this was rarely needed because the winning clubs typically qualified for Europe through the league or the Scottish Cup. Raith Rovers became the last club to take up the European place through the League Cup, qualifying for the 1995-96 UEFA Cup after winning the 1994-95 League Cup as a First Division club.

The lack of European qualification has reduced the competition's commercial profile in recent decades compared to the Scottish Cup, although it remains an important early-season trophy for SPFL clubs. The financial rewards are modest by major European cup standards, but the trophy is one of three major Scottish domestic prizes alongside the Scottish Premiership and the Scottish Cup. Winning all three in the same season completes the Scottish domestic treble — achieved by Celtic eight times and Rangers seven times, with no other club ever completing it.

Scottish football's pre-League Cup competitions included the Glasgow Cup, the Glasgow Charity Cup, and other regional trophies. During the Second World War, the regular national league programme was suspended and replaced with regional competitions including the Southern League Cup and the North Eastern League Cup. The Southern League Cup, which ran from 1940-41 to 1945-46, provided the template for the new national League Cup launched at the start of the 1946-47 season. Rangers won the inaugural cup, beating Aberdeen 4-0 in the Hampden Park final.

The competition has gone through several major format changes. Until the mid-1980s, it used a longer group-stage format that involved early-season groups and, at times, two-legged knockout rounds. The 1984-85 reform moved the competition towards a straight single-elimination knockout format. The 2016-17 reform reintroduced a group stage at the start of the season and helped reposition the competition as the first major trophy of the Scottish season, although the lack of European qualification has limited its commercial profile compared to the older Scottish Cup.