Serbian Cup

Infobox sports league
current_season=Serbian Cup 2007-08
logo=Lav_Kup.jpg
pixels=150px
sport=Football
founded=2007
teams=2,032
country=SRB
champion=Partizan

The Lav Cup of Serbia is the national football cup of Serbia. After the dissolution of the state union of Serbia and Montenegro, the Football Association of Serbia was formed as an independent association for the first time in history. The Association began organizing the cup immediately and one of the first major decisions that had to be made was who would be the official sponsor. The association decided to give the marketing rights to popular Serbian brewery Lav Pivo. The Carlsberg affiliate will support the Serbian Cup during the first 4 years. The company will take out a sum of 1,000,000 Euro's which will be divided in four for every year of competition. That means that the awards annual budget is going to be 250,000 euro's. The cup has been given many names by several madia outlets such as "Serbian FA Cup" however, the official name of Serbia's domestic cup is "Lav Kup Srbije" or in English The Lion's Cup of Serbia. Along with the rewards from endorsments the winner of the Serbian Cup gets a spot in the UEFA Cup if they are not already qualified. Historically the Balkan nations have very few upsets in their cup tournaments with their top teams almost always winning and Serbia is no exception and that is why Balkan nations struggle to sell tickets and have very low ratings when compared to the FA Cup or Copa del Rey.

Trophy

Before the tournament even began it was decided that Serbia's cup would have a new trophy and that the old one which was won by FC Red Star the year before would remain in their museum. However the association decided that the Championship trophy would remain the same. To find a new trophy for the cup they decided to make a contest at Belgrade's Art College where students would each make one and then a trophy would be selected. The Serbian Football Association officials presented the new trophy of the National Cup competition on Monday December 11, 2006. Artist Mihajlo Milnar defeated 50 other students in the contest held at Belgrade's Art College. The trophy which is heavily inspired by Orthodox Christianity as well as Serbian history was proclaimed as the perfect trophy for the biggest football competition in Serbia.

When the press asked Mlinar which club has his support, the 25-year-old answered that he simply never had a day of football training and that his only favorite is Serbia. Everybody present agreed that the student was the perfect candidate for making the trophy, and that he fully deserved the cash prize of 250,000 Serbian Dinars. Mlinar immediately became one of the most recognized faces across Belgrade. On May 15, 2007 at Partizan's Stadium FC Red Star defeated FK Vojvodina to be the first ever Serbian Cup winner and the first team to lift the trophy that Mihajlo created.

Cup Winners

Note: The Serbian Cup has been derived from two defunct cup tournaments the first being the Yugoslav Cup and the other being the Serbia and Montenegro Cup. The 2006/07 season was the first one that Serbia has ever held as an independent football association. For a list of previous Serbian cup winners during those tournaments visit their respective pages.

External links

* [http://www.lavkup.com/ Official page] sr icon