Are domestic cups more or less important than 10-15 years ago?

[Thunder_PT]

I find the variety of formats in the cups of Europe one of the most interesting things.

In Sweden, Turkey and San Marino they have groupstages in the FA cup. In England, Scotland and Eire there are replays (until QFs, SFs and Final respectively).

Some countries use 2-legged format throughout; some until SFs or Final; some only for SFs or Final. Some use away goals.

Some use neutral venues for SF or Final. Some have seeding. Some automatically draw small clubs at home; some away.

Norways adds its biggest clubs at Round of 128. Others only at Round of 64, Round of 32, even Round of 16.

Agreed. I tend to prefer single legged ties, no seeding, as many teams as possible with the biggest ones entering as early as possible, completely open draw and a final in the same neutral venue every time (but not semis). That's my ideal cup, I guess because that's what I was used to in Portugal when I started watching football (the format was based on the English fa cup, with replays and all). Fortunately this season they expanded it to include more teams.

[HibeeJibee]

I find Portugal's "lucky losers" R1 repechage draw particularly strange.

Do any other cups have such a system?


Kosovo Cup has 28 teams. Instead of R1 comprising 12 ties with 4 clubs entering in R2, it uses the format of cups in the very early days of football:

R1 - 14 ties
R2 - 7 ties
QF - 3 ties, 1 bye
SF - 2 ties

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015%E2%8 ... osovar_Cup


Only cup with 2-legged final is Bosnia & Herzegovina. Also the Spanish Supercup is played over 2-legs.

I see Greece's FA cup now has a groupstage, too.

Latvian League Cup has "placing rounds" for 3rd-8th.

[Thunder_PT]

I find Portugal's "lucky losers" R1 repechage draw particularly strange.

Do any other cups have such a system?

That was only introduced this year and it took me by surprise as well. The goal is to get the right number of teams (power of 2) early on. Before they achieved this by giving teams byes, now they preferred to do this repechage.

It allows for weird scenarios like Naval's (they were in the top flight not that long ago, but are now in the 3rd level). They lost 8-0 in the first round, and things weren't better in the league (4 games, 4 losses, 0 goals scored and 18 conceded), got lucky on the repechage, played Fafe from the division above and beat them 3-2. Ain't football strange?

[Forza AZ]

In the Netherlands we had groupstages in the Cup untill 2003. We also had 2 legged ties in the 1980's and replays also around that time. Teams playing in Europe have entered in the round of 16 also for some years around 2005.
Since 2006 we have the current system in which all 1st and 2nd level teams start in the round of 64. Before that round there are either 1 of 2 QR's with lower level teams. Only the teams playing in Europe are seeded in the round of 64 and 32, and in the round of 64 teams from level 3 or lower play at home if they draw a team from level 1 or 2.
This system is OK for me, allthough maybe they should remove the seeding (at least for the round of 32) to make it "perfect".

[Forza AZ]

Do any other cups have such a system?

Netherlands also had a lucky loser system for some years in the 1960s. It was abandoned after the lucky loser (Ajax) ended up winning the Cup in 1970.

[AnelZ]

Only cup with 2-legged final is Bosnia & Herzegovina.

The last time the final was played in one leg in Bosnia and Herzegovina was in 2004 when Modrica won against Borac on penalties. The game was played in Sarajevo on Koševo stadium which was almost completly empty. After that it was decided for the final to be played across two legs as well so that at least the stadium/s would not be empty. Neutral venue in another city is a no-go for supporters in this country, sadly.

[HibeeJibee]

Oh dear:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37478695

FA Cup replays could be scrapped and the fourth and fifth rounds moved to midweek nights to accommodate a winter break in England, says Football League chief executive Shaun Harvey.

Harvey said the move would allow more weekend games and generate income for increased solidarity payments from the Premier League to the Football League.

It will also, he says, fill a £20m gap caused by leagues from the Championship down being cut by up to four clubs.

[Zippy]

The FA Cup means far less these days and you can thank the FA themselves for that fact. When they told Manchester United they should travel to Brazil and play in the Club World Cup instead of play in the FA Cup.

[SteffenM]

I don't know whenever this is in the "meaning of the thread"
Sorry if not.

But cross-country question for this seasons domestic cups:
Any overview of the best teams in each country out of the cup at this stage?

Norwegian is of course settled (Rosenborg winners, among others Molde is out)

I saw Anderlect, Fenerbache and Panathikanos as some of the better teams (and high coefficients) are out already.

[Thunder_PT]

I don't know whenever this is in the "meaning of the thread"
Sorry if not.

But cross-country question for this seasons domestic cups:
Any overview of the best teams in each country out of the cup at this stage?

Norwegian is of course settled (Rosenborg winners, among others Molde is out)

I saw Anderlect, Fenerbache and Panathikanos as some of the better teams (and high coefficients) are out already.

FC Porto are out in Portugal.

[Forza AZ]

PSV are out in the Netherlands

[SteffenM]

Thanks.

I added them and took a small tour around top 20-ish countries
Porto,
PSV, (Twente)
Sparta Prag, Viktoria Plzen, (Jablonec)
Malmø FF (have won the league)
(Hajduk Split)
Legia Warsaw
Metalist Kharkiv, Chernomorets Odesa, Zorya
Anderlect, Club Brügge, Standard Liege, Lokeren
Spartak Moscow, Rostov, CSKA Moscow, Zenit, Dynamo Moscow (2nd tier, but high cof.)
Werder Bremen, Bayer Leverkusen, VfB Stuttgart, Mainz 05
Udinese, Palermo

In Spain, England and France the best team haven't had the opportunity to be knocked out, yet

Didn't realize they had cup group stage in Greece and Turkey, so sorry about mentioning Panathinakos and Fenerbache

[Lurker]

In Sweden.... the cup was previously seen as something the cat dragged in, from all involved. And the only slight of interest could be seen in the final. Albeit, still usually with a low audience and just about who would qualify for Europe. But with the new format, with a knockout stage in the summer (top 32 enters in the second round) And then, the group stage in feb-march (last 8x4) the following year. Just before the real season starts. And later on with the qf, semis and the final in march-april with a EL-spot some months later at stake to play for. The cup really has got a surge. From both teams (who sees the group stage as a great match-up before the season) and from starving fans. So, this format is here to stay for sure. They just need to sort out the final-venue a bit more in my book. They started with having a fixed arena. Then when the final teams in two years in a row, didn't drew all that much of a crowd. They instead, the last two years have drawn the venue between the two final teams. Not all that fair. But Häcken nevertheless did beat Malmö this year, and it was a rather packed house as well.

Wiki (En)

[Lorric]

In Sweden.... the cup was previously seen as something the cat dragged in, from all involved. And the only slight of interest could be seen in the final. Albeit, still usually with a low audience and just about who would qualify for Europe. But with the new format, with a knockout stage in the summer (top 32 enters in the second round) And then, the group stage in feb-march (last 8x4) the following year. Just before the real season starts. And later on with the qf, semis and the final in march-april with a EL-spot some months later at stake to play for. The cup really has got a surge. From both teams (who sees the group stage as a great match-up before the season) and from starving fans. So, this format is here to stay for sure. They just need to sort out the final-venue a bit more in my book. They started with having a fixed arena. Then when the final teams in two years in a row, didn't drew all that much of a crowd. They instead, the last two years have drawn the venue between the two final teams. Not all that fair. But Häcken nevertheless did beat Malmö this year, and it was a rather packed house as well.

Wiki (En)

I don't get it. Why has it become more popular now it's harder to win than it was before? A top team needs to play seven games to win it now, before they could win it in five.

[Lurker]

The league was priorited much higher than the cup previously (still is though) when the cup was going on alongside the league season in the summer-autumn. Don't think the number of games has anything to do with it from the teams pov either. And the cup has never had any status here, hard to tell why? And as I pointed out, the group stage before the season as sort of a warm up has proven to be a hit. And with that the whole interest for the cup itself has risen.

Edit: And it's only the final (on a holiday) that collide with the league season. Exept one summer match the year before for the top 32 teams. Compared to previous format.