Scottish Cup Format

This article outlines the current entry format for each round of the Scottish Cup, Scotland's national football competition. This format was introduced for the 2007-08 competition.

In all rounds bar the Semi-Finals and Final, a drawn match goes to a replay. The team which was away from home in the first match, will be at home in the replay. If the replay also ends in a draw, 30 minutes of extra-time, then penalties, will decide the tie. Away goals are not used as a determining factor.

Days and Times

Generally matches in a given round will be played on the same Saturday at 3pm. The exceptions to this are matches (particularly before Christmas) at non-league clubs who do not have floodlights - these games may have to kick-off earlier to avoid lack of light.

Sky Sports have the right to show 1 match per round from the Fourth Round onwards, while BBC Scotland have the right to show 1 match before the Semi-Finals, 1 Semi-Final and the Final. These televised games may be moved to the Sunday, have an early kick-off on the Saturday, or in certain instances they have been moved to midweek. The police also reserve the right to play different games at different times - for example, if Rangers and Celtic were both due to be playing at home.

Replayed matches are generally played on the Tuesday or Wednesday, a week-and-a-half after the first tie. However, at clubs without floodlights they will be played on the Saturday, a week after the first tie. These guidelines often apply to rescheduling matches postponed because of bad weather, although these often go ahead on the Tuesday or Wednesday immediately after the first weekend tie.

Where bad weather causes multiple postponements, matches are played on Monday nights, or the weekend of the next round.

Preliminary round (typically played in August, if required)

*in the event that a senior league - Highland League, East of Scotland League or South of Scotland League - is won by a non-SFA member, that club will take the place in the Second Round. As a result, there would be too many clubs in the First Round, and a Preliminary Round of between 1 and 3 ties would be required.

First round (typically played in September)

36 clubs (18 ties):
*14 clubs formerly participating in the Qualifying Cup North, excluding the top two in the Highland League.
*18 clubs formerly participating in the Qualifying Cup South, excluding the winners of the East of Scotland and South of Scotland leagues.
*4 Scottish Junior FA clubs :
**Winner of the Scottish Junior Cup
**Winner of the East Super League
**Winner of the West Super League
**Winner of the North Premier League(if a Junior club wins both the Cup and their respective league, only 3 Junior sides enter and the last club drawn is given a bye to the Second Round)

econd round (typically played in October)

32 clubs (16 ties):
*18 first round winners (or, where only 3 Junior teams qualified, 17 first round winners and 1 club receiving a bye)
*Top two in the Highland League
*Winner of the East of Scotland League
*Winner of the South of Scotland League
*Ten clubs in the Scottish Football League Division Three

Third round (typically played in November)

32 clubs (16 ties):
*16 second round winners
*Ten clubs in the Scottish Football League Division Two
*Six clubs in the Scottish Football League Division One, excluding those sides which finished 4th or above, or were relegated from the Scottish Premier League, the previous season

Fourth round (typically played in January)

32 clubs (16 ties):
*16 third round winners
*12 clubs in the Scottish Premier League
*Four clubs in positions 2-4 in Scottish Football League Division One from the previous season, and the club relegated into that division from the Scottish Premier League

Fifth round (typically played in February)

16 clubs (8 ties):
*Fourth round winners.

ixth round (typically played in March)

8 clubs (4 ties):
*Fifth round winners.

emi-finals (typically played in April)

4 clubs (2 ties):
*Sixth round winners
*Matches played at neutral venues, almost always at Hampden Park.
*No replays - matches played to a finish.

Final (typically played in May)

2 clubs (1 tie):
*Semi final winners.
*Match played at Hampden Park.
*No replay - match played to a finish.