Scottish Cup

The Scottish Cup is the national soccer league cup, it is otherwise known as The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup.

The Scottish cup began in the 1873 football season, and was first won in 1874, at the commencement of the football season. This makes the Scottish cup the oldest national cup in the world. The original cup began when the Queens Park team sent letters to all other prominent Scottish teams, asking for a donation of one pound with which the Queens Park would by a trophy.

The current format of the Scottish Cup competition is similar to that of any other major sporting tournament competition. The primary rule for the tournament is its single elimination nature, meaning a loosing team cannot return into the tournament. At the initiation of a new competition, teams are randomly paired up, with the first team in every draw having the advantage of playing on the home stadium. Winning teams move into a second round and are once again randomly paired, with the first drawn team in every pairing enjoying a home game. This continues until there is only one team left.

There is no seeding in the draw tables in the Scottish Cup, although there a small number of rules that some teams can take advantage of in the playing of the tournament. Clubs that currently play in the second or third division, automatically qualify for the second draw of the tournament. This is done to ensure that some teams aren’t pitted against others that are much better, so as to give them a better chance of progressing further in the tournament. Four teams that are in the Scottish Qualifying Cup also get to progress in the second round. Further, teams that are in the first division or the Scottish Premier League, automatically do not have to play in the third round of the competition.

It is believed that the current format of the Scottish Cup could change in the 2007-2008 league.