The Scottish League Cup
History, format, trophy, prize money, draw preview, featuring Neil McCann and Didi Hamman
The Scottish League Cup, the oldest national League Cup competition in the world, will see the conclusion of its group stage today. The draw for the next round takes place live on Premier Sports around 5pm, after the St. Mirren Vs Ayr United match in Paisley. This article will look in depth at the history of the tournament, the current format and explain today’s draw.
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History
Post-War Introduction
Rangers & Aberdeen non-counting dominance
Celtic catching up
Format Change
The invited clubs
The only team to go from group stage to winners
Police refusing Aberdeen tickets
Every Final attendance since 1946
The Trophy
Original borrowed from SFA - now in Ibrox trophy room
SFL Chairman donation
Neil McCann’s bike
European Qualification
Bayern Munich 0-1 Raith Rovers
Ross County and East Fife
Jurgen Klinsmann, Ronaldo and Danny Lennon
Sponsorship
Every title sponsor in the competition’s history
Prize Money Breakdown
Today’s draw
Seeded side
Unseeded side
Home advantage
HISTORY OF THE CUP
The Scottish League Cup was introduced in the post-war era as a new knockout tournament open to all Scottish League clubs, effectively evolving from the wartime Southern League and North Eastern Cups that had run during WWII. The Scottish Cup and the official national league championships were suspended during the War, and so all trophies won are not officially counted in the record books nor the clubs’ honours list.
This is unfortunate for fans of both Aberdeen and Rangers fans, as they were the dominate side in their respective cups in the 1940s. Rangers reached all five finals of the Southern League Cup (winning four), while Aberdeen reached six of eight North Eastern finals (winning five). Confusingly, two of the three editions the Dons didn’t win, were won by Rangers ‘A’, which was the Gers’ reserve side.
Season 1945-1946 saw the first national league cup, which was still unofficial, following the merger of the two aforementioned regional cups. Rangers lost 3-2 on that occasion to Aberdeen in an enthralling match which saw the Dons score in both the 1st and 90th minutes, in front of 135,000 fans at Hampden.
The following season, 1946-47 saw the return of regular, official football and all regional tournaments were disbanded. It was therefore the first official season of the Scottish League Cup, with Rangers winning the inaugural final in 1947, defeating Aberdeen at Hampden Park. It’s an outcome Scottish football has become accustomed to over the years, with the Gers winning the trophy more times than any other club - 28 wins from 79 editions.
The original format often included group stages leading into knockout rounds, and from 1950 all the way up until 1999 the final was played before Christmas, with only a couple exceptions, giving fans an early piece of silverware to chase every season. However, by the 1980s the tournament had to be revamped to alleviate fixture congestion - due to expanded European competitions and league reconstruction. In 1984 the League Cup was reformatted to a straight knockout bracket from the first round to final. It was in this era that Rangers built up their lead at the top of the winners list, winning 9 out of 12 League Cups between 1985 and 1994. At the turn of the millennium, the Semi-Finals and Final were moved to the Spring, to avoid clashing with early European qualifiers, and the clubs involved in Europe were all given byes until the third round.
FORMAT CHANGE
The format then remained unchanged until 2016, when the League Cup came full circle to once again include a group stage at the start of the season - just like it had 70 years ago. This saw BT Sports join as a new broadcast partner, with the final now typically staged in November or December. Since the change, Celtic have rapidly closed the gap on Rangers in terms of total League Cups won - the Celts have won 7 of the 9 tournaments under the new format, to take their tally to 22 behind Rangers’ 28.
The Gers won the trophy two seasons ago under Phillipe Clement, meaning that only St Johnstone have been able to end Old Firm dominance of this competition since the reformat. Even reaching the final has proven to be a rare achievement for a non-European competing team, with only Motherwell (2018) and Livingston (2021) losing in the final after starting in the group stage.
St. Johnstone (2021) remain the only winner to start in the group stage, since the 2016 reformat.
Since the 2016 overhaul, the Scottish League Cup begins with an early season group stage and then moves to knockout rounds. There are eight groups of five teams, and each team plays four matches (home or away) in a single round-robin. Unlike the Scottish Cup, which has 130 clubs enter, the League Cup is largely only for the 42 member clubs of the SPFL. All 37 clubs from last season that are not in European competition participate in the group stage, so non-league sides are then invited to round the numbers to 40 teams. If the coefficient continues to fall, this will of course become 38 teams not in Europe + 2 guests, as we will lose a European entrant. This season it was the Highland League champions (Brora Rangers), and runners-up (Brechin City), as well as recently promoted East Kilbride, the Lowland League Champions.
There is no longer any regionalisation aspect to the group stage draw, but groups are seeded based on the previous season’s league positions, ensuring a balance of higher and lower-ranked teams in each pool. Once the group stage commences, teams can earn either 3 points for a win or 1 point for a draw, however the drawn matches do not remain draws. If a group game is tied after 90 minutes, a penalty shoot out is held, with the winner earning an additional point.
After all five matchdays of the group phase, the eight group winners and the three best second-placed teams (11 clubs in total) advance to the last 16 - joined by the five clubs in UEFA competition who received a bye into the second round (last 16). From here on in it’s a straight knockout, although the last 16 draw is seeded - the five European teams, plus the three best group winners. These teams will play the eight unseeded teams (the remaining five group winners + the best 3 runners up). All knockout ties go to extra time and penalties if required, there are no replays.
The Semi-Finals are traditionally played at Hampden Park, with the last exception to this coming in 2018/19 when Hearts Vs Celtic was played at Murrayfield in front of the second-biggest crowd at a football match ever held in Edinburgh. This was to avoid two matches at Hampden on the same day, as both Celtic and Rangers (in the other Semi-Final Vs Aberdeen) had Europa League matches on the Thursday night - so both had to play on the Sunday. Similarly, the League Cup final is usually held at Hampden, with the last occasion it was held elsewhere coming in 2013/14, when Aberdeen Vs Inverness Caledonian Thistle was played at Celtic Park because Hampden was being refurbished for the 2014 commonwealth games.
ICT had sold 7,500 tickets at Parkhead while Aberdeen had originally sold 40,000 - but had requested more given the capacity is 60,000. However the Police would not allow the seats in the Lisbon Lions Upper to be released, due to the segregation requirements - the empty seats would have housed Aberdeen fans above ICT fans. Hence the Celtic Park capacity was capped that day at 51,143.
The below charts show the Scottish League Cup Final scores and attendances for every season from 1946/47 until 2024/25.
THE TROPHY
During the Second World War, the Scottish Football League (SFL) had been awarding the unofficial Southern League Cup winners a trophy which they had borrowed from the SFA. At the end of the war, the SFA asked for the return of the trophy in the summer of 1946, as they needed it for a one-off competition which was held to celebrate the end of World War II - known as the Victory cup. Rangers defeated Hibernian 3-1 in the Victory Cup Final in front of 100,000 fans, and they were awarded the trophy - which has remained with the club ever since.
The SFA recalling their trophy meant that the SFL had nothing of their own to award the winners of their newly created official League Cup tournament. Thankfully, the SFL chairman John McMahon donated the three-handled trophy, which has remained in use ever since.
The only exception to this was in the 1980s when the competition was sponsored by Skol lager - who awarded a second Skol branded trophy - known as the Skol Cup. In 1988 Rangers won their third Skol Cup and so they were allowed to keep the trophy permanently, with a new Skol Cup introduced the following season which lasted until Skol ended their partnership in 1992.
Coca-Cola became League Cup sponsors in 1994, and unlike Skol, they didn’t award a Coca Cola branded trophy. No, instead, they offered the man of the match in the final a Coca-Cola branded bike! Pictured below (thanks to Rangers F.C photographer Willie Vass) is losing Hearts finalist Neil McCann in 1996 receiving his bike, as the victorious Rangers team can be seen celebrating in the background at Celtic Park!
EUROPEAN QUALIFICATION
Until 1995, winning the League Cup resulted in a place in the UEFA Cup preliminary round - which is why the iconic FC Bayern 0-1 Raith Rovers half-time scoreboard picture exists.
Raith defeated Celtic on penalties to win the league cup in 1994/95, and so qualified for the UEFA Cup in 1995. They drew a Faroese club GÍ (which has since merged with Leirvík ÍF to form Víkingur) in the preliminary round, swatting them aside 6-2 on aggregate, before defeating ÍA of Iceland 3-2 on aggregate in the First round. It was in the Second round (last 32) where the Rovers where paired with the German giants, losing the first leg 2-0 in front of 13,000 at Easter Road, thanks to a Jürgen Klinsmann double. Klinsmann would score 15 in the UEFA Cup that season as Bayern won the tournament, but not before they suffered a scare at home to Raith. Danny Lennon sensationally put the Scots ahead just before half time - his fourth of the tournament - before Klinsmann and Markus Babbel scored in the second half to seal a 4-1 aggregate win for Bayern.
As the tournament no longer carries a European place, it means that League Cup victors such as Kilmarnock (2011/12), St. Mirren (2012-13) and Ross County (2015-16) did not play in Europe after winning the tournament.
Ross County and East Fife remain the only Scottish clubs to have won the League Cup yet have never played in any UEFA competition.
SPONSORSHIP
The Scottish League Cup has had various main sponsors over the years, leading to different names for the tournament. In the early years it had no sponsor, but from 1979 onwards commercial sponsorship was becoming more common in football. The SFL signed deals to have their tournament known as the Bell’s League Cup in 1979-81, the Skol Cup between 1984 and 1992 and the Coca-Cola Cup from 1994-1998.
Although the Coca-Cola bike is iconic, and Glass kept his bike for 20 years before he donated it to Aberdeen F.C who raffled it to raise money for youth development, it was ultimately a short-lived sponsor. There have been a variety of other sponsors over the years, most notably CIS insurance who had a twelve year partnership, while current backer Premier Sports have recently signed a new deal to remain as both sponsor and broadcaster until at least 2031. As official broadcaster, they showed 30 of the 80+ group stage games over the last two weeks (five on live TV and 25 streamed online), plus they will show all of the knockout games - a further 15 matches.
PRIZE MONEY
Last summer, the SPFL announced that the prize pot was at a record level - over £3.5 million - a 14% increase on the previous year. In this new structure, the League Cup winners (Celtic for 2024/25) received £400,000 in prize money, with runners-up (Rangers) receiving £200,000
Naturally, the teams eliminated before the final receive less of a payment, but both losing semi-finalists still receive a decent £150,000. It’s now £100,000 for each of the four losing Quarter-Finalists, while the eight teams that exit in the last 16 receive £60,000. For the 29 teams that are eliminated in the group stages, everyone is guaranteed at least £30,000 (for finishing 5th in a group). There’s then an extra £2,000 for each position higher in the table - up to £36,000 for finishing as a ‘worst’ runner up and being knocked out. There’s also money for being on live TV, a payment of £18,000 (for each of the teams involved) in any group stage matches, or £30,000 per team for appearing on Premier Sports in any of the knockout rounds.
TODAY’S DRAW - 5pm
The draw for the last 16 in the 80th edition of the Scottish League Cup competition will take place live on Premier Sports 1 today, around 5pm following the St. Mirren Vs Ayr United match.
SEEDED SIDE
There will be eight seeded teams, drawn to face the eight unseeded teams, with matches on the weekend of August 16th and 17th. The seeded teams are our five European representatives + the three best group winners (Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Hibs and Dundee United + three winners)
Hearts and St Johnstone both cruised through their groups with perfect records and are guaranteed to be seeded due to their goal difference, which leaves one more seeded berth. Ayr United can take it, if they beat St. Mirren to also end with a perfect record of 4 wins and goal difference of at least +13.
If Ayr win : Ayr through as seeded team
If Ayr don’t win: Partick Thistle through as seeded.
Thistle also had a 100% record but their GD is ‘only’ +9. They are guaranteed progression - it’s only their seeded status that requires Ayr not to win.
UNSEEDED SIDE
Falkirk, Alloa, Kilmarnock and Motherwell are all guaranteed to take 4 of the 8 unseeded slots. Although they were group winners, their goal difference was not as strong as the others. Both Greenock Morton and Livingston have also confirmed their spots in the unseeded side of the last 16 as the two best runners up.
This leaves two remaining unseeded spots:
If Ayr win: Partick & Dunfermline go through as unseeded.
If Ayr lose (either at 90 mins or pens): Ayr & St. Mirren progress as unseeded
If Ayr draw then win on pens: Ayr & Dunfermline progress as unseeded
HOME ADVANTAGE?
There is no home advantage for the seeded teams, the home team will be determined at the draw. Normally, you would expect that being drawn at home greatly increases chances of progression. However it doesn’t always work like that, and indeed last season was the first time ever* that the eight teams drawn at home in the last 16 all progressed! *(since the introduction of round of 16 in 1984/85)
This then produced the guarantee of another stat - it was then the first time ever that the four home teams in the Quarter Finals were also at home in the Last 16.
Looking at the subsequent rounds, and I think you can understand my love of stats by now to appreciate that it makes my brain hurt a little bit that Rangers weren’t drawn as the nominal home team in the Semi-Final. That would have obviously meant that we’d have had, for the first time ever, the home team being victorious in every single knockout tie in the competition. I won’t sleep tonight.
This season’s Premier Sports Cup dates: Last 16: August 16/17, Quarter-Finals: Sept 20/21, Semi-Finals: Nov 1/2, Final: Sunday Dec 14th 2025
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I am blown away by the support so far.
Gavin
Super stats that man. Nice to see Super Raith Rovers and that iconic scoreboard photo get into your analysis.
Brilliant article. I enjoyed counting the finals I've personally attended since my first in 1982...14 wins and 4 losses. Some long forgotten memories coming back as well. Thank you.