Scottish Women's Premier League Cup
{{Infobox football tournament
| name = {{nowrap|Scottish Women's Premier League Cup}}
| image = Sky Sports Cup COLOUR PORTRAIT RGB.png
| imagesize =
| alt =
| caption =
| organiser = Scottish Women's Premier League
| founded = 2002
| abolished =
| region = {{Flagicon|Scotland}} Scotland
| number of teams = 17
| qualifier for =
| related comps =
| current champions = Rangers (2025: 3rd title)
| most successful club = Hibernian (7 titles)
| broadcasters = Sky Sports
| motto =
| website =
| current = 2024–25 Scottish Women's Premier League Cup
|logo=File:Sky Sports Cup COLOUR PORTRAIT RGB.png}}
The Scottish Women's Premier League Cup, currently known as the Sky Sports Cup due to sponsorship and commonly shortened to the SWPL Cup, is a league cup competition in women's football in Scotland. The cup is open only to the teams in the Scottish Women's Premier League. There are four rounds, including the final.
The competition was launched in 2002–03 along with the Scottish Women's Premier League, and the first winners were Kilmarnock. It supplanted the Scottish Women's Football League Cup (Kilmarnock were also its last winners) which continued as a lower-division competition.
The SWPL Cup changed to run on a summer schedule played in a single calendar year (from around March to November) from the 2009 edition{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/2010/dec/19/england-hope-powell-womens-football |title=England coach Hope Powell calls for women's game to switch to summer |last1=Leighton |first1=Tony |date=19 December 2010 |work=The Guardian |access-date=28 August 2011}} until the COVID-19 pandemic ended the 2020 season prematurely (leaving that year's edition unfinished) and caused the SWPL to revert to a winter format in all competitions for the following season, which was retained after pandemic restrictions ended.
The trophy has been won most often by Hibernian, seven times.
Format
Up to 2015, eight of the twelve Premier League teams were drawn to play in the first round. The four winners and the other four teams then played in the quarter-finals. All matches were played over one leg.{{cite web|title=Scottish Premier League Cup draw|url=http://www.shekicks.net/news/view/9264|publisher=shekicks.net|access-date=29 July 2014|date=2 February 2014}}
Since the addition of the division SWPL 2 in 2016, all teams from the Premier League's two divisions have taken part in the cup. The last edition with the straight-knockout format was the 2019 Scottish Women's Premier League Cup
In a large change to the format for the 2020 edition of the Cup, a 16-team group stage was inaugurated, planned to qualify teams for the eight-team knockout phase, with the League's top two clubs given a bye to the quarter-finals; but the SWPL was abandoned early in the 2020 season, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and the League reverted to the winter format as a result. The league cup was not played in the 2020–21 season. The group phase was played with all clubs in the 2021–22 SWPL Cup,{{cite web |title=SWPL CUP 2021 |publisher=Soccerway |url=https://int.soccerway.com/national/scotland/swpl-cup/2021/group-stage/r59316/}} which was completed and won by Celtic.
Past winners
Previous finals are:
=List of winners=
| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" |
| Titles
!Team |
|---|
| align="center" |7
| align="left" |Hibernian |
| align="center" |6
| align="left" |Glasgow City |
| align="center" |3
| align="left" |Kilmarnock |
| align="center"|3
| align="left" |Rangers |
| align="center"|2
|align="left" |Celtic |
| align="center"|1
| align="left" |Spartans (as Edinburgh) |
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://swpl.uk/sky-sports-cup/ Sky Sports Cup] at SWPL website
- [https://www.rsssf.org/tabless/scot-womcuphist.html Scotland (Women) - List of Cup Winners] at RSSSF
{{Scottish Women's Premier League Cup}}
{{Scottish Women's Premier League}}
{{Women's Football in Scotland}}
{{National football league cups}}