Scottish Cup facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Scottish Cup

Founded	1873; 152 years ago (1873)
Region	Scotland England (1 team)
Number of teams	130 (2024–25)
Qualifier for	UEFA Europa League
Current champions	Aberdeen (8th title)
Most successful club(s)	Celtic (42 titles)

The Scottish Cup is a super exciting yearly football competition for men's teams in Scotland. It's officially called the Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup. This competition is a "knock-out" style tournament. This means if a team loses a game, they are out of the competition!

The first Scottish Cup was held way back in 1873–74. Many teams can join, including all 122 clubs that are full members of the Scottish Football Association (SFA). Some other clubs can also join if they are associate members. For sponsorship reasons, it's currently known as the Scottish Gas Men's Scottish Cup.

The Scottish Cup is the second-oldest football competition ever, right after England's FA Cup. But here's a cool fact: the actual Scottish Cup trophy is the oldest football trophy in the world! It's also the oldest national trophy anywhere. The first team to win it was Queen's Park in March 1874. The current champions are Aberdeen, who won the 2025 final by beating Celtic in a penalty shootout.

How the Scottish Cup Works

The Scottish Cup tournament kicks off at the start of the Scottish football season in August. The final match, which decides the champion, usually happens at the end of May. Teams join the tournament at different stages. This depends on how high they rank in their football leagues.

The teams with the lowest rankings start in the preliminary round. The top teams, like those in the Scottish Premiership, join later in the fourth round, which takes place in January.

The 2006 final between Heart of Midlothian and Gretna was decided by a penalty shoot-out.

Since it's a knock-out tournament, teams are randomly paired up for each round. The first team drawn gets to play at their own home stadium. Each game lasts 90 minutes, plus any extra time added by the referee. The team that wins moves on to the next round, and the losing team is out!

In the past, if a game ended in a draw before the fourth round, the teams would play again at the other team's stadium. If that replay was also a draw, they would have a penalty shoot-out to decide the winner. From the fourth round onwards, there were no replays. If a game was a draw, they would play 30 minutes of extra time, and then a penalty shoot-out if needed.

However, rules changed in August 2022. Now, there are no replays after the preliminary round. If a game is a draw from the first round onwards, they go straight to extra time and then penalties if there's still no winner.

For the 2022–23 season, 50 clubs played in the preliminary round. Teams from the Highland Football League and Lowland Football League started in the first round. Clubs from Scottish League Two joined in the second round. Teams from Scottish League One and the Scottish Championship entered in the third round. Finally, the 12 clubs from the Scottish Premiership joined in the fourth round.

Who Can Play?

Any club that is a full or associate member of the Scottish Football Association (SFA) can play in the Scottish Cup. Full members, which include all teams in the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), Highland League, and Lowland League, automatically qualify.

Former junior club Bonnyrigg Rose (in red) qualified to compete by winning the SJFA East Superleague in 2012.

Clubs that are not full SFA members can still qualify. They can do this by winning one of six specific leagues at tier 6 in the Scottish football league system. Since 2007, winners of the Scottish Junior Cup can also qualify. And since 2015, the winners of the Scottish Amateur Cup can also join the competition.

Players must be registered with a competing club. A player cannot play for more than one club in the same tournament. Before each match, clubs name eleven players and up to seven substitutes. To play in the final match, a player must have also been registered for the semi-final round with the same club. If a club uses a player who isn't properly registered, the club might be removed from the tournament.

Where Games Are Played

Before the semi-final and final rounds, the location of each match is decided when the teams are drawn. The first team drawn in a match gets to be the home team. They usually choose to play at their own home stadium.

The semi-final games are played at a neutral venue. This usually means Hampden Park in Glasgow. Sometimes, Hampden Park isn't available, like when it was being fixed up in the 1990s or when it was used for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. In those cases, the semi-finals have been held at Celtic Park and Ibrox Stadium, which are also in Glasgow.

The semi-final and final games are hosted at Hampden Park.

Hampden Park also typically hosts the final match of the tournament. This stadium has hosted most of the finals, including the very first one in 1874. Other stadiums in Glasgow hosted finals in the early years. The 1896 final was the only one held outside Glasgow, played in Edinburgh.

Hampden Park has held world and European records for the highest number of fans at a game. The 1937 final between Aberdeen and Celtic had an amazing 147,365 spectators! This was a world record for a national cup final and is still a European record today.

Playing in Europe

Since Scotland is part of Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the team that wins the Scottish Cup gets to play in big European competitions organized by UEFA.

From 1960 to 1998, Scottish Cup winners qualified for the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. Now, the Scottish Cup winners qualify for the next season's UEFA Europa League.

Sometimes, the Scottish Cup winners have already qualified for a UEFA competition because of their league ranking in the Scottish Premiership. If this happens, their spot in the Europa League goes to the highest-ranked team in the league that hasn't qualified yet. It does not go to the Scottish Cup runners-up.

Scottish Cup History

The Scottish Football Association was started in 1873. The Scottish Cup was then created as a yearly competition for its member clubs. The very first Scottish Cup match took place on October 18, 1873. In that game, Renton beat Kilmarnock 2–0.

Celtic F.C. are the side with the most Scottish Cup victories. The trophy is pictured second from left, alongside the 1907–08 team

In the early years, Queen's Park was the strongest team. They won the final 10 times in the first twenty years! Other successful teams during this time included Vale of Leven, Dumbarton, and Renton.

In 1885, a record was set for the biggest win in the tournament. Arbroath defeated Bon Accord by an incredible score of 36–0 in a first-round match. This was also the highest-scoring professional football game ever recorded in history!

The Famous Trophy

Balloon in the shape of the Scottish Cup trophy (2013)

The Scottish Cup trophy is truly special. It's the oldest national trophy and also the oldest football trophy in the entire world! It was made by a silversmith named Martin Hall & Co in London in 1873. It has been given to the winners of the tournament every year since 1874.

The trophy is made of solid silver. It stands about 50 centimeters (almost 20 inches) tall and weighs 2.25 kilograms (about 5 pounds). The original trophy is kept safe at the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden Park. It's only taken out once a year to be cleaned and presented to the winning team. After the celebration, the trophy goes back to the museum. The winning team gets a copy of the trophy to keep, which is also used for promotions.

Team Successes

A total of 34 different clubs have played in the Scottish Cup final. Out of these, 25 clubs have managed to win the competition.

The most successful club is Celtic. They have won the cup 42 times and have played in 62 finals! Rangers and Celtic have also been runners-up (lost in the final) more than any other club, with 19 defeats each. The most recent winner is Aberdeen, who beat Celtic in the 2025 final.

Winning Doubles and Trebles

When a club wins the Scottish Cup and also becomes the Scottish league champions in the same season, it's called a domestic "double". Only three clubs have achieved this! Celtic has done it 21 times, and Rangers 18 times. Aberdeen is the only other Scottish club to win both in the same season, back in 1983–84.

Since the Scottish League Cup started in 1947, clubs can win a domestic "treble" by winning all three tournaments in one season. Celtic has done this an amazing eight times, which is a world record achieved in 2023! Celtic even won four trebles in a row from 2016–17 to 2019–20, which is called a "quadruple treble." No team had ever won consecutive trebles before.

Big Surprises in the Cup

The Scottish Cup is famous for its "cup shocks," where smaller, lower-ranked teams beat much bigger, higher-ranked clubs. These upsets make the tournament exciting!

Second-tier club Airdrieonians played in the 1995 final against top-tier Celtic.

In 1938, Division Two club East Fife won the tournament. They beat Division One club Kilmarnock. This was the first time a team from outside the top league won the trophy! Hibernian became the second second-tier team to win the cup in 2016, beating Rangers. Only one other non-league club has won: Queen's Park beat Celtic in the 1893 final.

Many other smaller clubs have reached the final but lost. These include Dumbarton, Kilmarnock, Airdrieonians, Falkirk (twice), Gretna, Queen of the South, Ross County, Hearts, and Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

There have been many surprising results in earlier rounds too.

• In 1959, Dundee was knocked out by Highland League club Fraserburgh, even though Dundee had Scotland international players!
• A year later, Eyemouth United reached the quarter-finals after beating two higher-league clubs.
• In 1967, Berwick Rangers knocked out the defending champions, Rangers.
• In 2000, Celtic suffered a shock defeat by First Division club Inverness Caledonian Thistle. This led to the famous newspaper headline: "Super Caley go ballistic, Celtic are atrocious".
• In 2020–21, Highland League club Brora Rangers knocked out Championship leaders Heart of Midlothian. Hearts had been runners-up in the two previous seasons!
• In 2021–22, the cup holders, St Johnstone, were knocked out by League Two (fourth-tier) club Kelty Hearts.

In 2022–23, Drumchapel United (from a seventh-tier league) beat League One side Edinburgh. This was the biggest statistical cup shock ever, with 62 league places between the teams! Later that season, Darvel (sixth-tier) knocked out Scottish Premiership club Aberdeen, with 56 places separating them.

In 2025, Rangers were surprisingly eliminated in the 5th round by Queen's Park, a second-tier team. This was the first time Rangers had lost a home game to a lower-division team. It was also the first time since 1882 that Queen's Park beat their Glasgow rivals.

Other big upsets include Stenhousemuir's win against Aberdeen in 1995, and Albion Rovers beating Motherwell in 2013.

Sponsors of the Cup

The Scottish Cup has had several sponsors since 1983. The sponsor often gets to name the competition. The tournament relies on money from these deals. However, it ran for over 100 years without a main sponsor until the late 1980s.

The Scottish Health Education Group was the first sponsor in 1983. Their deal was worth about £200,000, which was the biggest sponsorship in Scottish football at the time. This partnership was praised for encouraging a healthy lifestyle through football. The deal ended in 1989, and Tennent Caledonian Breweries became the new sponsor.

The Scottish Government, with businessman Willie Haughey, sponsored the cup from 2008 to 2010. The 2008–09 competition was called the Homecoming Scottish Cup. This was to promote Scotland's year of homecoming and tourism. The 2009–10 competition was known as the Active Nation Scottish Cup, encouraging healthy living through football.

Watching the Games

You can watch Scottish Cup matches live on TV! BBC Scotland broadcasts them in Scotland, and Premier Sports shows them across the rest of the United Kingdom.

BBC Radio Scotland also provides radio coverage, including live commentaries. Other radio stations like BBC Radio nan Gàidheal and BBC Radio 5 Live also broadcast some games.

The Scottish FA also sells rights for countries outside the UK. In Australia, the Scottish Cup is shown on Network 10 and Paramount+. In the United States, you can watch the tournament on ESPN.

The Scottish Cup Final is one of a few special events that must be shown live on terrestrial television in Scotland.

See also

In Spanish: Copa de Escocia para niños

• Football records in Scotland
• List of Scottish Cup winning managers
• Scottish Women's Cup